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Sunday, December 26, 2004

Another Wiseacre

Andy Carpenter is the wiseass lawyer of an advance reader novel, Bury the Lead, that I picked up at Book Expo. It's fun. He is suckered into representing the reporter son of an editor friend. Daniel, the journalist, had been the only contact between a serial killer who cut off the hands of his victims and the public. After the fourth death, the police charge Daniel with the murders. The evidence seems rather overwhelming, especially when the severed hands are found in Daniel's apartment. That his wife had been murdered (hands intact) in Cleveland was not especially auspicious.

Andy makes delightful comments throughout, such as when he attends a classy wine-tasting for a charity. "I am immediately transformed to another planet, a place where people spin wine around in their glass, analyze it as if it's a top-secret formula, and use words like 'flinty,' 'oaky,' and 'brassy' to describe the taste. Not having previously chewed on flint, oak, or brass, I have no idea what those things taste like, which puts me at a considerable disadvantage. I'm not even sure what they mean when they say a wine is dry; I spilled some and had to mop it up with my napkin just like I would something wet."

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