Tuesday, February 20/2018

Finish reading Payback, the novel about kidnapping a banker during the Cyprus financial crisis. Fun, and a fast read. If you're a Cypriot, or a Canadian from anywhere other than Toronto or Vancouver, you probably rarely read a book set in a place you know intimately, as must happen to Londoners, say, all the time. So reading Gail Bowen's mysteries set in Regina had a particular resonance for me as the central figure, like Gail herself, lived within six blocks of a house I had lived in, and one book was actually partially set in a university building where I had had an office when I taught there. And much of the pleasure of Payback is in the familiarity of the setting. Not a great literary attribute, but a pleasure. Minor editing failures - leading me to wonder not for the first time if I would have enjoyed life as a copy editor. Like the hero rolling down the car window, enjoying the wind in his face, and lighting a cigarette. None of the five co-authors ever smoked? But fun anyway.