Wednesday, September 25, 2013

8:51 AM Well, it's another rainy and cloudy day, and my allergy problem is back. Damp air causes fungus to grow and give off spores, and that's one of the very worst allergy producers for me. I've taken as much medicine as I dare to take at one time, and it's only a little bit better.

I'm watching the news. I've also been looking up the prom photos of Obama and his friends, because somehow that is on the news again. When I went to the Internet I found many sites saying that Obama engineered the publication of the photos to make a smoke screen on the IRS issues. The right wing really does hate Obama, and I noticed in reading their rancorous and often uneducated comments that they are still trying to say that Obama wasn't born in the US, and other allegations from the last few years. The comments, except for one, all were short and extremely biased. They said things like “the photos show that Obama used to like white people,” and that he “once had a life.” His friends in the picture were all white except him, which shows me that he was always open to white people, as he still is. He has appointed white people freely for his cabinet positions. The only time I ever saw him come close to the prejudice line was when he came out immediately in the media against the police officer who arrested Professor Gates on his own front porch, even after he showed ID that proved his identity. He could have made a statement about it, though, without calling the police officer foolish. All in all, though, I think Obama is a calm and fair leader, and extremely intelligent. I don't always agree with what he has done, but I think he has been basically a good leader. I enjoy seeing him on the news, because he has a refined manner and a healthy looking and always well-groomed appearance. He is handsome, but hasn't been in the news for having affairs or being “forward” with women, unlike President Clinton. I often agreed with Clinton and admired his ability to talk clearly in plain language and his knowledge about many issues, but his Lewinsky scandal was a shame. He should have known better. Of course, the press is an all-seeing eye that is always open, examining every single statement or action with a close and potentially critical attention. I wouldn't make it ten minutes as a politician. I make too many opinionated statements and don't try to keep up a public image. I would be like VP Biden, only worse. I would also be very unhappy in that situation. I prize few things above my freedom to be myself. I don't envy the presidents.

I'm going to read for awhile now. 10:14 – Purcell and Robicheaux are both pursuing information by getting close to shadowy witnesses or people of interest. Purcell has hired his daughter as an office assistant without telling her who he is and how he happens to have met her before. He is being a loose cannon, as usual, and is walking just to the edge of a fine line on which the issue is incest. He thinks she is the professional killer who shot three men who were connected to his IOU problems, and feels protective of her as his daughter, but also sees her as a sexual woman. He has chosen to involve himself closely with her, and she shows signs of being approachable sexually. I have a problem identifying with Purcell, one of the two “good guys” in this story, because he isn't clean enough for my tastes and operates from the base of his perpetual anger. Robicheaux has a long term relationship with him in spite of his violent tendencies, because he once saved Robicheaux's life. Robicheaux often seems to be trying to protect Purcell from his own self-destruction, but gets on the dark side of it himself sometimes, like a basically good kid following another's bad example. His “male bonding” logic often makes him go along with Purcell and get in trouble himself as a result.

Robicheaux, meanwhile, questioned an ex-cop named Leboeuf who had a reputation for being a bully when he was on the force, and Robicheaux rubbed his fur the wrong way by being confrontational. Presumably as a result of that, two men in a freezer truck – leading me to question whether they were involved in Blue's being found dead in a large block of ice – try to run Robicheaux off the road and then shoot at him with a sawed-off shotgun. His windshield is destroyed but he is unharmed and calls in the incident to 911. His superior rousts Leboeuf and has him brought in for questioning. They can't prove anything on him about the shooting and have to let him go, though his phone records show that he made three suspicious telephone calls immediately after Robicheaux left his property, possibly setting up the hit.

This author has just committed one of my pet peeves. He put cicadas singing in the dark. If you hear bugs and other sounds after dark is going to be crickets, katydids and tree frogs. Every now and then an author does something like that and it always stops the flow of my reading and irritates me. Probably they haven't studied biology, or had their father tell them things, or noticed nature. They have been told that there is such a thing as a cicada and that it sings, so whenever they hear something they think it's a cicada.. Not everybody has had a lifetime of paying close attention to the natural world, of course. Still it's irritating. Of course that's the worst thing he has done as a writer, except for using so much gangster slang that I can't always follow what he is talking about. The plot of the book is interesting and complex.

Robicheaux got a late night phone call from the man who tried to shoot him, Chad Patin, but it's not a threat. He wants help to get out of the country because the bad guys who were behind him are trying to kill him now. He tells Robicheaux that one of the crimes that is behind the bad dudes who have appeared so far in the story is white slavery, and that Tee Jolie is a captive. Robecheaux thinks it's also about an art theft ring and drugs. The leader is called Angelle. The shooter Patin is interrupted in his call to Robicheaux by three men who, according to an eyewitness who had called 911 and reported the break-in, wrap him up in a rope and carry him away.

Page 251 –- This story doesn't move forward in a clear and traceable line, but inches ahead by small increments. Robicheaux and Purcell are both involved with a family who are suspected of being the center of several seemingly separate crimes. The husband Pierre Dupree and his grandfather Alexis are both cruel and abusive, though big power players in the community. The grandfather, in the words of Pierre, is both his grandfather and his father. His mother committed suicide. Pierre is married to a sexually promiscuous woman who tried to set Purcell up for blackmail. Purcell and Robicheaux keep interacting with the family to try to find out where the singer Tee Jolie is, if she is still alive. They are also trying to solve the murder of her sister Blue. The solution to both these crimes is not developing. That is becoming irritating to me. The story has too much interpersonal complexity without progress in the story line. I also don't like any of those characters, or sympathize with them. I'm on page 251 and it looks like I'm about halfway through. I hope the books starts to move soon. It's 5:51, so I'll quit reading now.