Some suspenseful stories ready to go full streaming ahead

 Living in these stressful times is no joke but one of the ways that we can channel that tension laden energy is by diving into a good mystery/suspense story.

Granted, that may not be your particular flavor of calming tea but for those eager to place their order, here are a trio of recent adaptations available on a streaming service near you that might do the trick:

LONG BRIGHT RIVER: Amanda Seyfried stars in this miniseries based on the novel by Liz Moore(best known for The God of the Woods) as Mickey, a cop seeing a very dark pattern in the recent slayings of three women.

She’s also on the look out for her sister Kacey(Ashleigh Cummings)whose addiction issues may be the reason that she’s missing yet something in the nature of these murders hint to Mickey that she herself has more of a connection to this case than expected.

The series was released on Peacock in March and the word of mouth has been pretty solid. Liz Moore is certainly having a moment and perhaps the timing is eerily perfect indeed:

FORCE OF NATURE:    The subtle for this  film adaptation of Jane Harper’s novel is The Dry 2, which is somewhat accurate as it is a follow up of sorts to the author’s breakout book, The Dry which introduces you to troubled detective Aaron Falk(Eric Bana).

The main mystery here involves a group of women who go out on a corporate wilderness retreat, only to turn up briefly missing and then being found with one of their party permanently out of the picture.

Having read this book, I can safely say that even if you haven’t read the previous entry(which I haven’t yet), that it does work well as a standalone story and draws an intriguing portrait of these women and the power plays that they draw themselves into , for decidedly worse and not the better.

The movie is available on Hulu and a few other platforms as well and certainly worth checking out:

THE LAST ANNIVERSARY:

This Australian miniseries is based on well known Aussie author Liane Moriarty’s novel about a young woman getting more than she bargained for from an inheritance.

When Sophie Honeywell(Teresa Palmer) is left a house on Scribbly Gum Island via the great aunt of her former boyfriend, it’s an odd situation to be sure but a grand opportunity for a new life as well.

However, Sophie is also getting a new community of folk with plenty of secrets and lies to conceal, the least of which is the infamous Munro Baby Mystery, still unsolved yet not truly forgotten…

Moriarty has an amazing knack for seemingly ordinary settings where her characters have far from ordinary strangeness to deal with and this story appears to be a prime example of that. It was released this past March and in the US, you can watch it on Sling, YouTube and a few other online places :

Like I said, mystery and suspense stories can be helpful in dealing with stress and such tales tend to do well in troubling times like the ones we’re experiencing now.

Part of the reason for that is that this genre greatly appeals to our innate sense of justice; that some things are wrong no matter who does them.

 This need to right that which has gone terribly wrong is a key element in developing a strong sense of community as well as true empathy. 

These ideals need to be nurtured and cherished in order to rally our spirits during challenging times and motivate us to want better and do better for each other together.

In the meanwhile, this does give us something good to look forward to-I for one am eager for the second season of The Marlow Murder Club(throughly enjoyed S[ on PBS Passport!), which hopefully will be airing later this year on Masterpiece. The books by Robert Thorogood sound great as well but I might want to wait on those to avoid spoilers , we shall see!: