Classic Movie Friday!

Shock (1946)

Vincent Price

Lynn Bari

Anabel Shaw

Frank Latimore   Reed Hadley   Charles Trowbridge

Janet Stewart (Anabel Shaw) is eagerly waiting for her husband, Lt. Paul Stewart, (Frank Latimore), at a hotel. He’s been a prisoner of war. She thought  he was dead, but now she’s been notified he is alive. He is late arriving and Janet falls asleep in the hotel room. She has a bad dream which awakens her. Shortly after she is awake, she witnesses a man kill his wife in the next room. When her husband Paul arrives and finds her in a shocked condition, he telephones for the doctor. The doctor contacts Dr. Richard Cross, (Vincent Price) a psychiatrist. Dr. Cross is the same man who killed his wife in the next room. Of course, Dr. Cross’s nurse (Lynn Bari) is also the woman he loves.

Oh my word! This is a good film. I like Noir films though. What Dr. Cross put Janet though was horrible. I was cheering for Janet the entire film, hoping she would live through the terrible ordeal. Her husband Paul was so worried about his wife. I was sitting on the edge of my seat wanting the film to hurry so I could see the ending. Vincent Price is not my favorite actor, but he was in some interesting films! Highly recommended.

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Ramblings and What Not ~

Hello Peoples! June is almost gone. It was a great month. I hope June was as fun for you as it was for me.

I love a campfire! Sitting around a campfire and relaxing the evening away is one of my favorite things to do, any time of the year, and we do have a firepit in our backyard. If the mornings are cool, Rick will start a fire in the mornings and evenings. This summer we’ve been able to start and enjoy many fires in our backyard, when we’re at home. It’s been nice.  🙂

As you know, we went on a refreshing, short vacation to North Dakota! Do you think barns are interesting? Strange question? When we were in North Dakota, we saw this interesting barn in the small town of Fort Ransom, outside the state park. I took a photo. Isn’t that a great barn???

A friend of ours was doing the road trip and visited us on her journey. She drove on to the Black Hills, Wyoming and Montana and had a fun time. It was so good to see her and hear about her journey!  🙂

I want to direct your attention to a fun blogger. Jog on over to   http://www.mystereity.wordpress.com   and meet Tam! She loves, reads and reviews mysteries! Don’t be shy.  🙂

Oh my word! We have a new ice cream shop in town. It’s within walking distance to our home! NO! NO! NO!  🙂  A chef owns this amazing shop and makes the ice cream and gelatos fresh daily!

Your favorites at the cottage in June ~

6-8 Classic Movie Friday! And Then There Were None (1945)

6-8 The Sunflower Girl by Rosanna Chiofalo

6-19 Fort Ransom, North Dakota

6-20 Fort Ransom State Park, North Dakota ~ continued

Looking forward to July!

Much love ~

Kathy

 

 

The Lost Sister by Tracy Buchanan

Publication Date: July 20, 2018

Publisher: Bookouture

Complimentary copy from NetGalley through Bookouture.

Becky’s author mother left her and her dad when Becky was a young girl. Years later, Becky’s mother contacts her, informing her daughter, now a veterinarian, that she is dying. Becky goes to her mother’s bedside. Before she dies, she tells Becky she has a sister. It doesn’t take long for Becky to decide to find her sibling.

I loved Becky. I thought she was an endearing character and she was committed to locating the sister she didn’t know. Becky certainly traveled to some interesting locations and met some interesting characters in search of her sister. This book captured my attention and held it, but I am sorry to say, it had some tough profanity and adult content in it. It is a mystery with some surprises and at one point I jumped out of the chair I was sitting in. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this one.

3 *** stars!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookouture through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

The Mysterious Affair At Styles (1990)

David Suchet

Hugh Fraser

David Rintoul

Beatie Edney

Gillian Barge

Hastings (Hugh Fraser) is trying to recover from the war. He accepts the invitation of a friend (David Rintoul) and agrees to stay at a manor house, in the English countryside hoping for rest. During the night, the matriarch dies from poison! Hastings asks for help to solve the mystery of the murder from Poirot who is staying at a home, nearby, with other refugees.

All of these book to film adaptations have been good. Our local library has had them and I’ve been watching several as I find them on the shelf. I’ve read this book, but I couldn’t remember who the killer was ~ that nefarious person. Some of the automobiles in these films are very snazzy!

I like Hastings. He’s a good character.  🙂

Enjoy!

Classic Movie Friday!

Phone Call From A Stranger (1952)

Gary Merrill  Shelly Winters  Michael Rennie

Keenan Wynn  Bette Davis  Beatrice Straight

David Trask (Gary Merrill) is leaving his wife. As he prepares to leave on a flight, he meets and becomes friendly with three other passengers, Dr. Robert Fortness (Michael Rennie), Eddie Hoke (Keenan Wynn) and Binky Gay (Shelley Winters). They are certainly an interesting group of people, each with a story to tell. The plane takes off in the rain and when the flight encounters lightening it has to land unexpectedly, so the passengers and crew spend the night together in a small airport. The following day, the flight takes to the air but encounters unexpected obstacles and crashes killing eighteen passengers with three passengers surviving. David Trask is one of those survivors and decides to visit the families of the three people he befriended on the flight.

This is a good movie and even though it is a tragedy, in the end I had such a good feeling. David Trask was certainly brave, not really knowing how each family was going to respond to his interference into their lives. It did all work out in the end and there were a few unsung heroes in the story.

Enjoy!

Fort Ransom State Park, North Dakota ~ continued

Hello Peoples! I have a few more photos of our amazing visit to Fort Ransom State Park, North Dakota.  🙂  If you would like to see the photos I posted yesterday, just scroll down.  🙂

This is a Yurt. A Yurt is new to me. Fort Ransom State Park has two Yurts and visitors to the park can rent them. Have you ever heard of a Yurt, lived, or stayed temporarily in one?

This is a house visitors can rent at Fort Ransom State Park. When Rick and I arrived at Fort Ransom, there was a BIG family staying at the house. It looked like a family reunion! They had a camp fire burning and were enjoying themselves. They had several children.

As you can see, the views from the top of these hiking trails are wonderful!

I rarely use the zoom on our camera. Rick asked me to use the zoom and try to capture a photo of this bird. I was surprised the photo turned out as well as it did. The state park borders farms, so we saw several fences around Ransom informing hikers where Ransom ends and a farm begins.

I would like to return to Fort Ransom in the winter. I would really enjoy walking around in snowshoes and hiking in the snow. Hopefully, we will visit in the winter. Enjoy!

Much love ~

Kathy

 

Death Is Like A Box Of Chocolates by Kathy Aarons

This cozy mystery is the first is a series, A Chocolate Covered Mystery.

Michelle and Erica own a combined bookstore and chocolate shop! Nice idea!  🙂  I’m all about chocolate and I’m all about books, so the two are great together! They are planning and preparing for a fudge cook-off! I want to be a judge!  🙂  The photographer, Denise, is discovered dead, apparently poisoned. Michelle and Erica support one another as Michelle investigates Denise’s murder.

This is a new to me author. I liked the mystery, which I didn’t solve, but when all was revealed, I wasn’t surprised. Michelle and Erica, best friends, work well together. There’s an irritating reporter in the story, and of course there’s a great lookin’ guy. 4**** stars!

Death Is Like A Box of Chocolates is number 23! That’s right! I’ve read 23 cozy mysteries in the Cozy Mystery Challenge. My goal is to read 30 cozy mysteries. Happy Reading!

 

Fort Ransom, North Dakota

Hi Peoples! Here we are! Arriving at Fort Ransom. *I think, if you click on the photo it will be bigger.* Of course, I wanted to hike a trail right away. We went to the Ranger building. And, I want to say, all the Rangers and park workers were so nice. They were friendly, informative and helpful. They were curious about us. The park is well-maintained. The Ranger building *below* is new. Visitors check in at the building. They have a gift shop inside. And, of course, whenever Rick and I camp, we forget something. We forgot our tent! We laughed so hard when we realized we didn’t have our tent. No worries. The back of our vehicle folds down flat, so we slept in the car at a tent campsite.

Fort Ransom has GOOD hiking trails! Below is the White Tail Trail. This was my favorite trail. It was heavily wooded, with a soft ground and we saw white-tail deer among the trees.

The Sheyenne River runs through the park. It rained a considerable amount of the time we were at Fort Ransom. Our shoes were muddy and wet most of the time.

The park has horseback riding, canoes, interpretive trails, ATV trails, Ranger talks at amphitheaters. During the winter the park offers snowshoes, snowmobiling, and skiing.

So many people I talk to don’t like North Dakota, they say, there isn’t anything to do in North Dakota. Oh my word! I so disagree. Every time I visit North Dakota I have such a good time. There is so much to do there, so many people to meet and talk to. It’s always a different adventure. I’ll post more photos tomorrow. Blessings and adventure!

Much love ~

Kathy

 

Ramblings And What Not ~

 

Hello Peoples! Rick and I have been on a short, but incredible vacation! We packed our bag, grabbed our camera and loaded the vehicle and traveled to North Dakota to hike and camp in Fort Ransom State Park. We had a great time and I have photos. We hiked and the state park has so many white tail deer! We saw a baby deer!  🙂  It rained hard during the nights, the mornings were chilly and the afternoons were 70 degrees. Yesterday it rained and we saw the most beautiful double rainbow!!! I stared at it for a long time. It was amazing! I’ll share photos and try to catch up on blog reading soon. I did finish a cozy mystery while we were away, so I will try to write a brief review.

Before our adventure to North Dakota, Rick and I went out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant that has great food. We shared a pizza that was made fresh, even the dough was handmade and fresh. It was a good pizza. 🙂 We each had a salad and I savored a chocolate cake drowning in chocolate sauce with a scoop of ice cream on top. Needless to say, afterward, we walked downtown to burn off some calories. It was cool and we thought it was going to rain, so we wore jackets and took our umbrella. It didn’t rain.

Speaking of pizza, Rick and I made a pizza!!! YAY! I made the dough. Rick chopped the veggies. We put it all together with plenty of cheese and put it in the oven! It was good. Yummy!

I’ll be back soon!  🙂

Much Love ~

 

Kathy

‘Twas the Knife Before Christmas by Jacqueline Frost

Publication Date: November 13, 2018

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Complimentary copy from NetGalley through Crooked Lane Books.

Mistletoe, Maine is oozing with Christmas cheer and certainly all is merry and bright until a man is discovered dead and Holly White’s friend, Caroline is the prime suspect. Sheriff Evan has to follow the clues and the clues are pointing to Caroline. Even though her friends and family are telling Holly to let the Sheriff do his job, Holly is determined to find the real killer so Caroline doesn’t celebrate Christmas in jail.

I liked it! I think this mystery has everything. A whimsical town, interesting, lovable characters, a mystery I didn’t solve and plenty of Christmas. It was fun, with a touch of creepy, and a little scary, funny at times and full to overflowing with holiday cheer. ***** 5 stars!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books through Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.