The Seven Year Slip, by Ashley Poston

Clementine’s beloved Aunt Analea has always said her New York apartment was magical. After she dies and leaves it to her niece, Clementine discovers just how magical when it transports her back seven years to encounter an aspiring chef staying there while Analea is away travelling. What follows is an odd romance and a tale of grief and self-discovery. It’s an interesting idea, not well executed. There are too many anomalies and conveniences required to make the timeslip work. Thinly drawn characters, repetitive descriptions and ludicrous sex scenes also let down the story. Strange, quirky font choices that impede readability don’t help. The romance genre can be so much more than chick lit, but this is not.

Pieces of Her (Netflix)

Divorced, middle aged, cancer survivor Laura Oliver lives a quiet life in small town Georgia and has a difficult relationship with her adult daughter, Andi. A violent and traumatic incident while the pair are out to lunch puts Laura in the national spotlight and dredges up some deadly secrets from her past. Andi has to tap into resources she never knew she had in her quest to stay alive and discover who her mother really is. Based on a Karin Slaughter novel, the eight episodes jump around in time and place, gradually revealing the real Laura Oliver, her family history and her motivations. Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote are compelling as adult Laura and Andi. Because this series was largely filmed in Australia the supporting cast is packed with fellow Aussie actors, with varying degrees of success in the accent department. The suspense is maintained throughout as you wonder who will survive and who deserves to.

The Last Devil to Die, by Richard Osman

This fourth outing of the Thursday Murder Club sees the team of retirees – Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim - investigating the murder of an elderly antiques dealer. He was known to them, a friend of Elizabeth’ husband Stephen, and his death appears to have been a professional hit connected to a missing cache of heroin. Meanwhile, Stephen’s descent into dementia has reached a tipping point – making Elizabeth less focussed than usual on the task at hand. This means the other three must step up, with the help of the usual local police officers, whose case has been taken over by outsiders. The usual undercurrent of humour is heightened by the pathos of the team dealing with the travails of ageing, particularly Elizabeth and Stephen. Osman has gradually built this thread over the previous three novels and deals sensitively and movingly with its inevitable outcome. This does come at the expense of the actual plot of the novel, so it’s probably best that he has decided to leave the Murder Club here for now and focus on other stories.

For All Mankind (Apple TV)+ Season 3

Private industry introduces space tourism and spearheads the race to Mars as the next generation of astronauts emerges. This leads to an incredible waste of resources and a dangerous acceleration of the space race, with three very different ships trying to be first to the red planet. Naturally disaster ensues and the competitors must eventually find ways to work together to survive. Meanwhile on the political scene Jimmy Carter and the Bushes are erased from the US presidency and Clinton is sidelined by a former astronaut and the first female president. Space exploration has spurred innovation and technology that has solved the energy crisis and mitigated climate change, but the politicians have failed to manage the transition well, leading to social disruption. Alt history and sci fi requires some suspension of disbelief from the start, but storylines must be credible within the created world to enable the audience to go with it. Unfortunately this season jumps the shark, with some truly silly story storylines involving drug abuse and pregnancy in space and North Korea. This is a pity because there are some wonderful elements to this show – the science and engineering, the tension and danger, the interplay between the personal and political and the work would be enough without the extreme soap that leaves a bad taste. Season 4 focuses on the Mars colony, but as Apple has hiked its subscription fees by 30 percent it won’t feature here.

The Drop & The List, by Mick Herron

These are two more Slough House-adjacent novellas that fill in the gaps between some of the full novels. Actual slow horses make only token appearances. The stories feature ‘milkman’ John Bachelor, who is charged with monitoring superannuated spooks and whose future looks increasingly bleak as he desperately claws to hold his place within the security services. Two future slow horses are introduced and, if you read this out of order – which is likely as the novellas are not well promoted – your heart will ache for what is to come for them.

Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl, by Fiona Britton

Miss Fisher meets Underbelly in this tale of a young sex worker in 1930s Sydney. Academically gifted and beautiful teen Violet Kelly sees few prospects for a good life on leaving the orphanage in Paddington with her best friend Albert. While he apprentices as a butcher, she joins the local brothel, La Maison des Fleurs, to train as a high class provider of sexual services to men with money. But Madame owes favours to gangsters who are connected to powerful and dangerous people, which puts her house and everyone connected to it at risk. Britton creates some interesting characters and paints a vivid picture of life in the violent Sydney slums, particularly the hardships faced by women and children. Unfortunately the book needed several more drafts, better historical research and more attentive editing and proofreading, which would have avoided the typos, mistakes and sloppy anachronisms that let down the story. There is so much packed in, including a Chinese curse, a missing twin, police corruption and a conveniently devoted diplomat that it becomes a hodgepodge of action, much of which is not believable. Sex work is lauded as a positive choice for a working class girl with no family, but there is little reference to any downside, like STDs, abortion or violent punters and Violet’s purported intelligence and looks would have given her more options than most. The title and the ending clearly set up the novel for Violet Kelly sequels, a la Kerry Greenwood, but Phryne Fisher she ain’t.

Wonka (2023), directed by Paul King

This prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tells how a young Willie Wonka got his start as a chocolatier, battling a corrupt chocolate cartel. Can he rescue an orphan, overcome an evil laundress and prove that the greedy don’t always beat the needy, while sharing his magical gift for chocolate with the world? Well duh! The promos don’t make clear that the film is a musical, which allows Timothee Chalomet to demonstrate his versatility - who knew he could sing? Unfortunately the songs are largely forgettable. The special effects justify the budget, featuring some delightful flights of absurdity, especially those involving a giraffe named Abigail. The supporting cast includes many well-known British TV actors, as well as Olivia Colman having fun playing a villain and Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa. There are some nice nods to the original Gene Wilder film, while wisely ignoring the bizarre and creepy Johnny Depp remake. It is a nice school holiday movie, enjoyable but not breathtaking.

BBB top fives for 2023

A lot of crime and a lot of angry women dominated reading (and possibly life) in 2023. Perhaps a better balance can be found in 2024. It was a big year for hoovering up books by Ben Aaaronovitch and Mick Herron and with their major series caught up, it will be interesting to see if their back catalogues hold up as new work is eagerly awaited. Of the 58 read, here are the most enjoyed, in no particular order. Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder, by Kerryn Mayne I have some questions for you, by Rebecca Makkai Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfield The Queen’s Price, by Anne Bishop The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron It’s been more of TV year than a film year in 2023 for BBB, both in quantity and quality. More effort will be made to get to the cinema in 2024, although 3-hour plus films will remain verboten, which is why Oppenheimer is a significant omission. Here are those most enjoyed, in no particular order: Films Living (2023), directed by Oliver Hermanus My Year of Dicks (2022), directed by Sara Gunnarsdottir Matilda the Musical (2022), directed by Matthew Warchus Barbie (2023), directed by Greta Gerwig The Marvels (2023), directed by Nia Da Costa Television The Diplomat (Netflix) Silo, Apple TV+ Ted Lasso season 3 (AppleTv+) Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+) Vigil (ITV) Season 1