Blessings #25

Nite Jewel - One Second Of Love (2012)

It had been years since she felt the type of romance that she wrote about in her novels. Not sex, that's not what she's talking about. Anyone can do porn. Don't get me wrong, it's a very successful genre but she always gave her readers so much more, something delicate that remained between the sheets long after they were stripped heatedly across the bed. She allowed those who followed her prose to remember that first kiss, the way it made you shiver. She provided wedding days that captured the swelling ambition of the heart that lifts you upon that stage. She was a master at the serenade that left Juliet breathless and Romeo cursing the shadows of his blood, casting it all away so that love would fulfill its true purpose. But now, here she was, a woman alone at fifty, wealthy beyond imagination, with twenty #1 best sellers under her wings and a mansion near the Golden Gate. Her search had brought her so far into the land of abundance but every night she lay down empty. She was lost because so much of her life was meant to be lived with another. How could a woman of her caliber live any other way? But two wasted marriages proved that to be a useless wish. Was there a star out there to dream upon? A guide to show her the way? Long ago she had given up on such ideas. But maybe there was something. The old glass case caught her eye. It had been locked since she sold the first 10,000 copies of this first novel and this book was the last remnant from that first printing. It was flush with the words of her youth and as she took it into her hand, she prayed that it would be a good read.

Red Riding Trilogy - Julian Jarrold, James Marsh & Anand Tucker (2009)

Based on David Peace's Red Riding Quartet of novels that revolve around the Yorkshire Ripper murders that occurred during the late seventies/early eighties, these films mix fact and fiction to reveal an insidious world of police corruption that allowed hideous crimes to occur with inadequate responses from the authorities. The three movies are filmed by three different directors in three different formats but they all blend together seamlessly as the look and feel of them are almost identical. Using the same actors, this trilogy is really more of a miniseries that can be watched together as one very long movie or seen individually. Each movie is engrossing on its own and the world of corruption exposed in the films is incredibly intricate and mesmerizing. I read some of the history of the Yorkshire murders and though there was no official corruption that came from the investigations, the apparent inadequate response was astounding. The investigation only gained traction when someone other than a prostitute was attacked and then it was thrown off course one way or another very easily. Some of this is reflected in the second film, which is near the end of the actual investigation, when a detective from outside Yorkshire is brought in to get things straight. That doesn't work out exactly, as none of these stories are filled with much hope. The most revealing aspect of the stories found here is how those in power do nothing when it comes to protecting the poor people in our society. They only respond when the affluent are affected. Fortunately, in this case, it takes one officer with a conscience to decide to put an end to the madness. Only then are we allowed a bit of redemption.