Celebrant, Vlady Peters, Redcliffe, Qld.
Blue Moon - Lee Child
Let me expound a little. Have you heard about the money-lender of the shady-character type? You know the kind who will lend you the money but is likely to hurt you if you don't pay it back? One imagines that his business is making money - the unpleasantness is only if you default. So presumably he needs some reassurance that you will be able to repay him - somehow. Not this lender. He will lend money to anyone – even if it's obvious that the borrow hasn't a chance in hell of paying it back.
Then a phone call from a medical place – probably around midday – to say there's a bill needs to be paid. By the end of the day. And it's only $40,000.
Then there's this really, really bad guy who's gone into hiding. He's somewhere in an ivory tower whose existence no one seems to know. Hidden somewhere where he never comes out he is guarded day and night by some seriously unpleasant characters.
Despite all odds Reacher – with a little bit of help from his friends – logically works out his domicile. There's pages of reasoning how and why the person is to be found in a particular place. This, I think is known as 'blinding with science'. A lot of words, seemingly making sense, but telling you nothing.
Needless to say, despite all the guards and all the precautions the nasty man is found. People are shot or killed by Reacher and friends with less compunction than most of us would have spraying a bug to death, bodies piling up as you watch. No one around to care. In fact, the lack of other people – besides the baddies – makes you wonder where is this place? In the middle of a desert somewhere?
I could go on, but the piece de resistance is where the bad guys' thirty-three million dollars – just sitting in easily accessible bank accounts - are transferred to the poor couples' zero dollar account.
The writing style is still the sharp short-hand, but the way of the plot and resolution is improbable. implausible, impossible, impractical, immoral. Really an insult to the reader.
