Random Thoughts

So why am I reading this book about athletic wear, anyway…

I thought it was because I saw that Lois Bujold recommended it, but that seems to be a fake memory. I have no idea! Did somebody else recommend this?

The name is awfully misleading, though.

It’s a mystery/fantasy novel, and it’s written in a most entertaining fashion. It’s like the writer tried to cram in as many clichés as possible — the book is 2024 on a stick. The protagonist is the helper of a Holmes/Wolfe type, and is dyslexic, because of course he is. (The Holmes character is on the spectrum, of course.) There’s weird scenes like when he beats up a suspect (because of course he does (the suspect confesses all after the beating)) who’s been described as being too old to be a gardener… so… he beats up an old doddering guy?

The author doesn’t really think any of this through, but just stitches together familiar tropes higgedly piggedly. But in a very entertaining way! Easy on the branes.

It’s fascinating the things he leaves out — there’s no traumatic past that’s brought up every two pages to give the characters character, and there’s no character development to speak of (so no “you’re not my father — you weren’t there for me when I grew up!”), and there’s no sex. I.e., there’s really no filler: It’s full-on investigation and world exploration for a solid 410 pages. I can’t really remember reading a book that’s this obsessive in quite a while.

It totally works. This book is pure heroin-injected popcorn. So much fun to read. It doesn’t sag at any point.

But oh, it’s also probably the stupidest book I’ve read in a while, and I’ve read some really, really stupid books. None of the plot particulars make much sense if you stop to think about them, and even on a micro basis everything is just, well, moronic (like the Super Secret Assassin who goes around murdering people in a way that’s so distinctive that it can only be a Super Secret Assassin). Oh, and the resolution? It was blindingly obvious who the killers were, just because we weren’t presented with any alternatives.

I see that my copy of the book is the sixth printing (and the first one was in 2024), so it’s a great commercial success, and I’m not surprised at all.

Now I wanna read the next book in the series, but I should probably read something else in between, what?

The Tainted Cup (2024) by Robert Jackson Bennett (buy new, buy used, 4.3 on Goodreads)

This is a Miss Marple book, so I’ve both read it before (at least twice) and probably seen a dozen adaptations of, but it didn’t seem that familiar to me, anyway, so I gave it a go.

But as soon as I started reading, I immediately remembered the central gag of the story. It’s still pretty entertaining, although Christie had to pad it out a bit by adding various cops talking to each other a bit too long. I had indeed totally forgotten who the killers were, and couldn’t re-figure it out, either.

It’s a fun plot executed well.

The Body in the Library (1942) by Agatha Christie (buy used, 3.81 on Goodreads)

What a great cover by Daniel Torres.

I’m still feeling under the weather, so I wanted something fun and easy to read. And so I reached for Blue Heaven, which I’ve read before (although probably thirty years ago) and remember as being just the thing.

And it is and it isn’t. As the cover copy states, the book goes for a P. G. Wodehouse thing… but it’s way more complicated than one of Wodehouse’s farces are, and has much higher stakes. It’s a comedy of errors about a group of friends that find themselves swindling the Mafia out of money — so there’s the uncomfortable tension between the farce and the unusually high stakes.

But that’s not really the real problem for me as a relaxing read — the problem is that there’s a gazillion characters, so many plot twists, and so many jokes that it’s just exhausting to read. I mean, I liked the book on this re-read, too — but it wasn’t ideal for this situation.

(Favourite joke: ‘Bong!’, the musical based on The Bell Jar.)

What I’m now wondering is whether this was ever adapted into a movie? I’m guessing not, because they’d have to cut and cut and cut the plot down to make it fit, and if you cut that much, you’re just left with a skeleton mobster heist comedy, which has been done many times before. The genius of this book is in the particular details… but perhaps it would make a very funny eight episode TV season?

Blue Heaven (1988) by Joe Keenan (buy used, 4.15 on Goodreads)