Film Review: Obsession and 9 novels with similar themes

I swore off horror films after watching The Exorcist as a teenager at a cousin’s place more than four decades ago. It scared the pants off me. What made it worse was returning home alone on the dark and rainy night. That resolution didn’t last very long. Over the years, I have watched horror films now and then, more out of morbid curiosity than any real liking for the genre. In my defence, I haven’t read too many horror novels, though William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, on which the film was based, remains one of the best-known books in the genre. I haven't read it either.

Which brings me to Obsession, one of the most talked-about psychological horror films of 2026.

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New Fiction: Books that caught my eye in 2026

One of the joys of being a booklover, apart from buying and hoarding books, is looking up fiction titles scheduled for release in a particular year, even if it’s not possible to read them all. I frequently read about new or forthcoming books that have generated interest in the media and literary circles. I’m curious to know more about these books and sometimes buy them, depending on whether I read in those genres.

To be honest, though, I don’t buy many physical books these days because I’m running out of storage space and already have more than enough books to read. My collection of comics is another story for another day. So, most of the new books I buy are ebooks, which I read on my tablet.

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Book Review: Bad Medicine by Paul Bagdon

Westerns have been my favourite genre ever since an uncle introduced me to Oliver Strange’s Sudden series in my teens. I read all ten novels by Strange, as well as another five by Frederick H. Christian—one of many pen names of the late Frederick William Nolan—who did a fine job of bringing the eponymous gunfighter back to life.

Since then, I have read Westerns every year, though not as many over the past couple of decades as my attention shifted to other writers and genres. Even so, I’m always looking for Western fiction. I was therefore delighted to come across a new author, Paul Bagdon, who appears to have written around fifteen series and standalone novels, though there may well be more. I also read online that Bagdon has published more than 250 stories and articles in several magazines.

I got bookends for Christmas, but no books

I didn't get any books for Christmas. Instead, my family gifted me a lovely pair of horse-shaped bookends among other things, perhaps in the hope that I might be tempted to read the books on display if I saw them every day. Never mind all the other unread books carefully tucked away in cabinets.

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You read the ones you have first, and then we'll see about more books.

The trick, if it was one, seemed to have worked. Perhaps it was a sense of guilt that made me put The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and Shiver by Allie Reynolds on display. Both were gifts from my daughter two years ago.

I had started reading The Silent Patient and even wrote about the book on this blog in 2024, and then completely forgot about it.

The bookends were a reminder to pick up the book where I'd left off. Except I had to start from the beginning, having forgotten what I'd read up to the bookmarked page. You can't just open page 52, so to speak, and continue reading as if you'd been there only yesterday.

People often ask on social media what book they would read first in the new year. With me it's usually a half-read book from December 31. So no surprises or hidden gems there—unless I’m tempted to let other books jump the queue.

But I'm optimistic, as I am every New Year, that I'll not only finish the leftovers but also read more books this year. 

Maybe then I'll get books for Christmas.

The wild ginger is in flower. So is agrimony, lady's lace, wild geranium. The ferns are turning yellow. The fruit of the snake lily has turned red, signifying an end to the rains. A thrush whistles cheerfully on the branch of a dead tree.

Yes, and when all the wars are done, a butterfly will still be beautiful.

— Ruskin Bond, author and poet, in his introduction to Delhi Is Not Far: The Best of Ruskin Bond, September 7, 1994 

Book Review: Stone: M.I.A. Hunter by Stephen Mertz

Stone: M.I.A. Hunter by American thriller writer Stephen Mertz is the first novel in the adrenaline-soaked Mark Stone: MIA Hunter series, which spans seventeen books. The series was created and plotted by Mertz, who collaborated with Joe R. Lansdale, Michael Newton and Bill Crider on the novels. Mertz and Newton also wrote several instalments of Mack Bolan: The Executioner, the long-running action series created by Don Pendleton.

My Kindle edition of Stone M.I.A. Hunter is a reprint of the first M.I.A. Hunter novel, retitled Leave No Man Behind and published in September 2017. 

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As the series title suggests, the M.I.A. Hunter is Mark Stone, a tough-as-they-come former Green Beret whose mission in the years following the Vietnam War is to locate American POWs forgotten by the government and officially listed as MIA or KIA, and bring them home. He knows he cannot rescue them all, but he is determined to save as many as he can.

Stone conducts his MIA-hunting missions in the jungles of Vietnam and Laos, and in other trouble spots around the world, accompanied by two trusted and battle-hardened companions: the six-foot-four Texan Hog Wiley and former British commando Terrance Loughlin. They rarely question Stone or his decisions, even when they lead them straight into hell and force them to fight their way out. Their loyalty to one another is absolute. 

Although Stone works for the CIA in an unofficial capacity, he often operates independently through Stone Investigative Consultants, a Los Angeles-based private investigation agency that provides a convenient cover for his missions.

M.I.A. Hunter begins in the Laotian jungle. Stone and his men, aided by anti-communist Laotian guerrillas, rescue a US Navy pilot and several other POWs who have been held by the Viet Cong since the end of the war. After fighting their way through more than a hundred miles of hostile territory, they finally reach their pickup point. But the waiting helicopter brings an unwelcome surprise: CIA operative Alan Coleman, a man with an agenda of his own. Coleman despises Stone and promptly places him and his companions under arrest for violating US law—or, as Stone sees it, for making the intelligence community look bad.

Back in L.A., Stone overcomes his legal hurdle with the help of Carol Jenner, a close friend who works for the Defence Department in Washington, and a sharp lawyer. Out on bail, he helps the widow of a Vietnam comrade rescue her teenage son from a Mexican drug cartel and set him on the right path. Just when he’s hoping for some MIA action, a badly wounded stranger turns up in his garage with shocking news before dying: Rosalyn James, an army nurse and the love of his life—believed killed in a Vietnam medevac—is still alive. For nearly fourteen years, she has been held captive on the Laos–China border by a brutal, torture-loving drug lord known only as the General.

Stone goes back with Wiley and Loughlin, in what could well be the most important MIA rescue mission of his life.

Stone: M.I.A. Hunter delivers nonstop, edge-of-the-seat action. Mark Stone and his team use weapons and hand-to-hand combat with lethal efficiency. It’s classic vigilante fiction where the heroes are near-invincible. They are men of honour, integrity and sacrifice. For many readers, including myself, it works because it satisfies a simple sense of justice—someone has to uphold it, even if only in fiction.

Stephen Mertz does not disappoint in telling the story of the MIA hunter and the forgotten war heroes he brings home. I will be reading more books in the series.

Book Review: Sniff the Detective by Richard Scarry

Sniff is a detective.
He helps people find things.
He helps catch bad people.
He thinks with his head.
And he smells with his nose.

Every now and then I like stepping outside my reading comfort zone. That's how I ended up reading Sniff the Detective (Golden Books, 1988), a delightful children's mystery by the late American author and illustrator Richard Scarry. It was my first children's detective story in middle age, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected.

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The illustrated book contains two stories—Sniff Catches the Robber and Sniff's Best Case Ever—set in a world of anthropomorphic animals who talk, work and solve crimes just like humans. They're impossible not to like.

In the first story, Chief Hound asks Sniff to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Jewel's precious bracelets. Since the elderly pig has neither left her home nor received any visitors, Sniff spends the night there, hoping to catch the thief in the act.

The second story begins on a rainy day with Sniff happily staying in bed until duty calls from another city. It's almost his birthday and he'd rather be home eating cake and ice cream, but detectives don't always get holidays. His train journey introduces a few suspicious-looking passengers carrying violins and wearing dark glasses, making for an entertaining mystery.

The stories are simple, funny and gently suspenseful, while Richard Scarry's colourful illustrations and large typeface make the book ideal for reading aloud to young children. I especially liked Sniff's approach to detective work. He relies on observation, common sense and, naturally, an excellent nose.

Children's mystery, YA mystery or adult crime fiction—a good detective story is still a good detective story. You're never too young or too old to enjoy one.

Note: Writer-blogger Patti Abbott is hosting Friday's Forgotten Books over at her eclectic blog Pattinase, where you will read some fine reviews of forgotten or overlooked books.