by

Spoiled—A Book Review

Meaning, the review is a total spoiler. You’ll not want to read this if you want to be spoiler-free, or otherwise uninformed.

28BC7D3F-7761-4742-AAE6-2EB8295A845A

Book purchased, my photo

So I read this. It’s OK, as stories go. However. The however relates to the prose, which is not much to write about so I won’t. It also relates to some plot flaws. At first I was willing to write about the plot thinking it was a go-along-with-it and I did, finishing the novel in the wee hours. But there are three serious flaws to my mind. The first is the bloody footprints throughout the house wherein the murder takes place. The hammerman has left a bloody mess behind, including his bloody tracks. The father of our protagonist and also a protagonist of sorts also trapeses through the house. His footprints would have been comingled of course, but there also should be some distinguishable ones. Worth a search at least, given that it’s his story. Yet none is undertaken.

A second flaw is that a birth certificate, given a birth by a married woman, should show the husband of the wife as the father of the child, should it not? I don’t believe you get to name anyone you choose. I think once marriage is the status, the default goes to the husband. Yes?

The third flaw is the rifle. How did the wife, Mrs. Patel, become an able shooter? Suddenly she has killed someone with a .22 bolt-action rifle. I’m not sure about this. And with all of the shots used to kill her husband, all of them on target. Isn’t a bolt action a single shot? Even if not, nothing in the novel takes us along. It’s an afternote. He’s murdered and it’s done by his wife. There you have it—a wrap. Ahhhhhmmmm, I don’t think so. It’s like the author-writer got tired and said, so there you have it.

And there we have it. A disappointment on the whole of it. Plus, it’s interesting that the puzzle our suicide leaves behind isn’t the answer to the mystery at all. That’s in the accidental find of the state-hall-of-records-address abbreviation found in the burned remains (burning done by Joey) in a wastebasket.

Oh, and the hammerman identity is easily deciphered partway through the story. It just takes a bit longer to determine why.

by

Happy Birthday

To one of our fine fellows, as posted by Poetic Outlaws. And we do wish that he had chosen to remain with us, but the monster inside would just not be silent. It was not of mean spirit that he stopped his life here. When the torment cannot be withstood or silenced by alcohol or drugs or personal heavens, then the only option is suicide. Did you know that by far the depressive’s way out is a gunshot to the head? To silence the monster.

by

Words

John Atkinson Grimshaw – Spirit of the Night (detail), 1879

Words. Fall in love with words—with their spirit, their story. “She was fascinated with words. To her, words were things of beauty, each like a magical powder or potion that could be combined with other words to create powerful spells.”  Dean Koontz – Lightning

by

Rumi

“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”

“Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that.”

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”

“I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.”

“In the blackest of your moments, wait with no fear.”

“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.”

“Close your eyes, fall in love, stay there.”

JKrishnaPrasanta Kumar Sahoo Follow · 21 June

by

Things I’ve Noticed

  • I find it not only easier to tolerate but almost enjoyable when intelligent people bash the “tyranny of virus villainy” (Jessie) but just plain annoying when stupid people shout “conspiracy” and cite neither provable nor unprovable emotional reasons that haven’t been reasoned at all. To wit: hospitals are actually empty, only one person with Covid-19 at the such-and-such hospital, all deaths are being counted as virus caused, masks cause people to have breathing problems, and on and on.
  • I have reached the age wherein changing a heel-height for a day can and will cause serious leg cramps during the night.
  • Changing a hair-do can cause me to adopt a different walk. So can heel heights.
  • There are certain expectations that are dropped in blog writing. Allowances are made, though not for misuses such as “their” for “they’re,” apostrophes when it’s a plural word or instead of “its” as a possessive. I notice this because I’ve been reading an old Jenny Diski blog. (Speaking about her content, not grammar usage.) She’s better there than in her book In Gratitude, where she tumbles into sophomoric or self-pitying. I know, I know, she did have cancer. That doesn’t explain the attacks on Doris Lessing where Doris may well have been in the right, depending on the slant of words.
  • Blogs also fall into different categories: the totally insipid, the average but ho-hum (this can also be the young self-centered darlings that all the other young darlings love) and the worthwhile. (Those on the borderline go into the lower category.)
  • Excel spreadsheets are for those of us who get tired of figuring out the same old dates we’ve figured out a hundred times before.
  • Hyperbole is the gift given—to those of us who write—as a legitimate poetic device.
  • So is sarcasm, as verbal irony.
  • Blogs may be like playing chess—you want to look at those that are better than yours so that you can improve. It’s no credit to beat an opponent who is not as good as you.
  • We all need to have those conversations with our parents or children that answer the questions we or they want to know. Now. Before they’re gone. We have to pretend we’re writing a family history or start one now. Ask.
  • Masks are now mandatory in Ohio starting tomorrow night. I wonder how long before we get to watch crazies who don’t know about the 10th amendment shout about their rights being infringed upon. OK, not funny just tragic with collateral damage.
  • Another thing about blogs—no serious editing required as when practicing your craft for publication. Some though, some. All blog writers must remember they have a certain obligation to the reader. Some standards.
  • There are grammar and spelling apps., some built-in. I know this as I’m a terrible speller.
  • An Excel spreadsheet is not going to get you all the answers to questions you wish you’d asked when people were alive. Yes, ask.

And so, for today, that’s the waaayyyy things are.