Pun Salad

This is a wonderful short book set in 1944 Sussex. An ancient retired detective puts his still awesome mental skills back to work to solve a murder and a missing parrot, the pet of a mute German lad. The detective is never named, but you'll be able to figure out who he is three sentences in. (Maybe you already have.) The mystery is complicated by the presence of the Dairy Research Board set up in a nearby estate: there are lots of antennas on the roof, and they don't seem to care very much that all their cattle are boys.

Nicolas Cage has a habit of showing up for movies that (to put it charitably) do not challenge his acting talent, and this is one of those. Also sleepwalking through their parts are Jon Voight and Sean Bean. But Harvey Keitel shows up eventually and he's fun to watch. A guy I've never seen before named Justin Bartha has an "amusing slacker sidekick" role that's actually amusing.

Otherwise, this is a by-the-numbers action flick with an unusually ludicrous plot.