Blind Traveler Down a Dark River

I started reading Robert Bennett’s “Blind Traveler Down a Dark River” without any pre-conceived notions. I didn’t look at the blurb, the preface or other reviews. With a paper book, I probably would have read the back cover first, but this was an e-book, so I just plunged in.

I read the first chapter about the CEO of a company that was trying to combine the best qualities of steel and plastic. So far, so good. I mean, why not? A very sensible idea and I’m surprised it hasn’t been done yet.

The guy had his problems: a drinking domineering wife and a trade union that wouldn’t quit. I liked him from the start and I was sad to realize he was not to be the main character, when around came a visually-impaired man whose story this actually is (and who’s responsible for the title of the book).

That’s when my grip on reality started to loosen. I’ve worked with GPS, I’ve even driven a car with a navigation system, but do the blind really use GPS to find their way around? And those driver-less buses, maybe they indeed exist overseas?

The writing was so believable and so unlike the conventional Science Fiction style, that it took several GPS experts, together with the book’s blurb, to convince me that this was, indeed, a futuristic setting and the year was 2021.

The premise of the book is simple: imagine a blind man who’s dependent on all this futuristic technology. Imagine the technology going haywire. Imagine him witness a murder… without actually being present at the scene.

A great premise. A very good book.

(The Blind Traveller is available in paperback.)

Do you remember your first birthday cake?

I do. I was turning 4 and it was the first time my parents deemed it necessary for me to have a party. The party consisted of three friends from kindergarten invited on the day (two of whom showed up), one parent (my father was away) and one birthday cake (bought from the most expensive baker in town).

In that time and place (we’re talking the seventies and commie Poland), the idea of a birthday cake was a cylinder of three layers of sponge interlaced with creamy icing, with a few turrets of cream on top as decoration. Did I mention that the choice as far as the shape went was a cylinder, or a cylinder, or a cylinder? Nobody thought of baking me a Mickey Mouse cake or a Gingerbread Man one. A cylinder it was. But it was a chocolate cylinder and I was happy...

... At least until I tasted it. The icing was spiked with brandy, the sponge was soaked in brandy, and the large 4 calligraphed in brandy cream on top gave it all an ironic twist.

Which is probably why I spend a fortune nowadays on my children’s birthday cakes. Every birthday will usually see 3 cakes: one for Kindy, one for home, and one for the extravagant birthday party. We’ve had a Buzzy Bee, a Fairy, a Mermaid, a Barbie, a Duckie, a Computer, a Lolly Cake and an Aeroplane. Some of them I’m surprised to have baked at home (one can do wonders with a set of hired baking tins), others I order from the most heavenly confectioner in Auckland: http://fleursfantasycakes.co.nz/. The cakes taste as good as they look, and she doesn't even put any brandy into them.

Prison Break 2

I never thought I’d be saying this, but Prison Break 2 is every bit as good as Season 1. (The rest of this entry may contain spoilers if you’re still busy with Season 1, so feel suitably warned.)

What I loved about Season 1 were the inside-the-prison scenes (as opposed to the lawyers trying to do their thing outside). What I loved even more, was the fact that The Pretty had such a meticulously thought-out plan, which covered scenarios A., B and C for almost every situation imaginable. And so, when the grand finale came, I wondered how a. they were going to justify the title, and b. how they could possibly maintain my interest now that the action would shift focus away from the prison and the tattoo.

But I worried needlessly. The tattoo is back in action, now more than ever as it’s being analysed by the experts, there is definitely a plan, and there is a prison break in the brewing. The writers haven’t lost their knack for pacing, and even though it’s formulaic in the extreme (take the hero, put him in deep trouble, pile on more trouble, see what else can go wrong and make it do so, repeat for all the lesser characters the reader/viewer cares about), it seems to work wonders.

The only thing I would prefer to watch right now instead of the next episode of Prison Break 2, is the first episode of Lost 3.

Feint of Art

By Hailey Lind (that's apparently a pseudonym of two sisters who write together)

I loved this murder mystery! It's quirky, upbeat, fast-paced and fun to read.

The heroine, Annie Kincaid, is unusual too: an interior decorator who's trying to make everybody forget her brief past as an art forger. Her grandfather would love to see her return to her wayward youth, and fate seems to be shoving her firmly in that direction when a fake painting is discovered in her local museum.

To top it all, she gets commissioned to find some original drawings (also replaced by fakes), and the new landlord is threatening to double her rent. Before you know it, Annie is in the middle of the action, with two unsuitable suitors to choose from and The Hulk panting for her blood.

The puns in "Feint of Art" remind me of Tamar Myers' work (that includes the title), but they are not nearly so OTT.

Quite by coincidence, this awaited me in my inbox this morning:
“Shooting Gallery, second in the Art Lover’s Mystery Series starring Annie Kincaid -- ex-art forger extraordinaire-- is due for release October 3 (A Signet Mystery, $6.99).”

I can’t wait. I just have to know with whom Annie’s going to get lucky.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Dead Man’s Chest

I used to love art movies, I really did. Betty Blue, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Mediterraneo, Bitter Moon, Il Postino.... In fact, “Three colours blue” I loved so much, I included it in my first novel as a major theme.

The last art movie I saw, and I do mean the very last one and never again, was a Spanish one about parents who’ve lost their baby girl. I think I must have suppressed the title due to the post-traumatic shock. Instead of being a therapy for my (hopefully irrational) fears, the film made me cry for days.

So I’m sure it’s no surprise to you that I haven’t seen the latest stuff about transsexuals, abused children, war, hostages and 911. Instead, I went to Pirates 2. I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t follow the plot at all. I simply enjoyed the eye-candy and almost 3 hours of mindless escapism.

I don’t know whether the movie itself was any good. Other reviewers gave the movie 3 out of 3. I doubt they knew what they were talking about, either.

The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives

By Sarah Stroymeyer

I started reading this book on http://www.dearreader.com/ (the deal is they email you the first few pages and then you decide whether to buy/borrow the rest). After the first instalment came in through email, I couldn't wait to read the rest.

The premise is simple: in the middle of nowhere Ohio there is a world where husbands are rich and wives are slim, sexy and shopping. The live by the rules (invented by themselves) and they are all happy… except for Marti, whose husband seems to be disappearing. He comes home long after she falls asleep and is gone in the morning before she wakes up, with only a Post-It note of instructions to her as an indication that he came home at all. As we read on, enter Claire, an outsider and an immediate rival, and we discover that Marti's story, intriguing as it is, is marginal.

It's not great literature by any means, but it's a fast fun read. What hooked me onto it, was not only the fun delivery style and punchy dialogues, but the dream of being a kept woman. Those of you who follow my blog will remember my un-PC desire to be a housewife. Some of you argued that it’s sad (or indeed insane). And perhaps they have a point: women who have no choice but play perfect wives, probably yearn for the freedom of a career. Well, I have an education, I have a career or three, and I say I’m willing to taste the grass on the other side.

So. All these women in “The Secret Lives of Fortunate Wives” have to do all day is look fabulous, be pampered and spend indecent sums of money. OK, so they can’t eat chocolate or chips or toast or meat or just about anything except yoghurt and celery sticks. That’s a small price to pay, if you ask me.

The Dark Backwards

Julia Buckley
Midnight Ink 2006

This one is a real cosy! You can't help loving the heroine, Lily Caldwell, who manages to be tough and vulnerable at the same time. I'm a bit tired of all the tough female PIs (e.g., Susan Grafton's), and more than a bit tired of the "too scared to touch a firearm" ones (e.g., Janet Evanovich's), but Julia Buckley manages to get the balance exactly right with Lily. Yes, Lily is almost too nice, her only vice being excessive grouchiness, but she is so, well, nice, that you forgive the author for this almost too perfect a character.

Did I just say it was a real cosy? Well, I take it back. The pacing is as good as any thriller, and the book kept me up way past my bedtime (I just had to make sure everything turned out well). Fortunately, it's a fast, easy read, so it only took me one late night to read it.

The first chapter of Ms Buckley's second murder mystery "Pity Him Afterwards" also reads well, and I look forward to reading the rest.

Now for the appetiser: Lily Caldwell dies. How's that for a quick read? LOL. Anyway, while "away", she sees the face of the man who murdered her. Naturally, when she returns from the dead, nobody believes her. And that includes her beloved husband and her fatherly boss. We meet Lily when she's as down on her luck as she can get (no job, no husband, a mysterious mugging)- and then she discovers somebody's bugged her house. To solve the mystery of her own murder, Lily must go back 17 years and investigate another unsolved murder...