More sinister still were reports of tech companies that sold software, hardware and know-how to help dictatorships spy on their own populations.
The suppression of these Sylvanian satires is as absurd and sinister as the reports that police officers asked for the names of British people buying Charlie Hebdo.
Adamsberg is convinced that the killer is the sinister Judge Fulgence, reported dead 16 years earlier.
Although local cops said they were pretty sure the sightings were nothing more than a Halloween hoax, now more people in Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana have reported sinister clown encounters.
There was indeed something slipshod, if not sinister, about the initial reports of Birch's death: Ethel Birch was first told that her son had been killed by "stray bullets".
No legitimate source believes the hysterical fringe reports of sinister, subliminal, or intentionally hidden messages within the Harry Potter novels and movies.
This year, BFMTV, the country's most watched news channel, was reporting a "sinister atmosphere".
Would they perceive it as something sinister and rush to report the incident, or is that being too heavy-handed?
Cosy, marmalade sandwich-munching childhood presence of yore, or (as recent reports insinuate) sinister-eyed corrupter of global youth?
We have no copy in the office, and a colleague returning from Soho reported a sinister absence of copies in the HMV Oxford Street.
