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Book Cover |
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Excerpt |
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I push the toilet door
shut and head back along the ill lit passageway towards the bar.
As I walk, it strikes me that the hum of
conversation has died away and that the pub has become unnaturally
quiet. I slow my pace, a dark shiver beginning to slither down my spine.
Still some distance from the end of the
corridor, I can just make out a small group of tables near the front
entrance. There are two young men sitting at one of the tables, their
faces drained of colour, their hands above their heads. The other two
tables are empty. I press my body against the wall and edge forward, my
9mm pistol already gripped tightly in my hand. As I near the end of the
corridor, I see a tall African man standing some ten meters from the
front entrance. He is holding an AK47 in his hands, the barrel pointed
upward at a forty-five degree angle. I hear movement to my right and
then, craning my neck forward, I see another African man with a black
revolver. He is hurrying from customer to customer, stuffing cell
phones, wallets and watches into a black tog bag.
I try to convince myself that I am
dreaming; that this is merely a pathetic rescue fantasy - save Lucy's
life and have her fall hopelessly in love with me - but the cold dryness
in my mouth and the warm sweat streaming down my brow tells me that it
is all too real. If I keep perfectly still, the robbers may take their
spoils and run, but if I burst into the room, I may well have a
bloodbath on my hands.
I feel my heart throbbing in my head as I
lean back against the wall. Out the corner of my right eye, I see the
second man with the black revolver hurry back towards the door.
"That's it," he shouts. "Let's go."
The big man with the AK, however, does
not seem to be in a hurry. He is staring across the room in the
direction of the table where Lucy and I were sitting, but from my
position in the corridor, I cannot see her.
"Let's kill some whites," he says, a
broad smile spreading across his face.
"No, Ziko!" shouts the other robber.
"Let's just go-go-go!"
The man called Ziko continues to stand
and stare, almost as if he has not heard the shout of his partner. His
eyes appear to fix on something and his brow begins to furrow. I see him
grit his teeth and swivel the AK across the room.
I sense, instantly, that his eyes have
fixed on Lucy. Still partially obscured behind the doorway to the bar, I
aim to the right of his breast bone and wait for the opportune moment.
The barrel of the AK just keeps coming down from his shoulder. I hear a
woman, not Lucy, scream and then, as my finger begins to tighten on the
trigger, one of the young patrons stands up from his chair and blocks my
view.
I hear a shot ring out in the pub, the
young patron dives to the floor, and then I see the robber with the AK
slowly stumble back, a red mist trailing out behind his back.
People are screaming now, throwing
themselves to the floor, scurrying under tables. The AK clatters
harmlessly to the floor and the robber collapses across the table, the
red mist still lingering in the air.
The second robber begins to sprint toward
the door, but while he is still some five yards away, it swings open and
a group of four tubby businessmen stride into the room, unaware of what
is happening in the pub.
The second robber panics. He turns away
from the door, looking for an alternate escape route, unsure what has
happened to his lifeless partner. He is gripping the revolver, however,
pointing it from one patron to another, not knowing where the danger
lies.
There is a second crack, the red mist
puffs out behind the second robber's head, and as he turns and falls
towards me, I see a black hole where his right eye used to be. |
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Synopsis |
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Captain James Blake is a police office that
was recently discharged from a Cape Town hospital after being shot. Upon
returning home to rest and recover, he meets his new neighbor, a woman
by the name of Talena who borrows Blake's alarm clock because hers is
broken and she has a job interview in the morning. Figuring he isn't
going to need the clock right now, Blake lets Talena borrow the clock.
That night, Blake receives a phone call from
Sergeant Mkhize about a murder. It seems that the chief wants Captain
Blake back on the job. Mkhize informs Blake that the murder is grotesque
and that Blake would have to see it to believe it.
Upon arriving at the murder scene, in a
remodeled garage that appears to be a recording studio, Blake finds a
dead man, Norman Filmer, with his rear end in the air. The police round
up a local vagrant, Sam Setswana, who had been at the murder scene and
stolen a bottle of liquor. Claiming to have found the man dead and
stolen the bottle, he says that he didn't murder the victim. Blake,
knowing Sam, believes him, but throws him in jail until they can learn
more about what happening in the garage.
Arriving at Filmer's house, Blake talks
first with the neighbor, Miss Pricilla Harding, who tells him that
Norman Filmer's wife is away, having flown to New York or Paris, or
somewhere exotic, and that she was due back last night. She also informs
the police captain that the wife is much younger that Norman and that
she is from Thailand. She gives Blake the spare key she has to Filmer's
house and Blake enters the house to have a look around, but finds
nothing of interest in the house. As Blake exits the house and talks
again with Miss Harding, Mrs. Filmer pulls into her driveway. Blake
informs the woman that her husband has been murdered. They enter the
house and Blake asks about a photograph. She informs him that the other
people in the photo are Michael Teal, Kobus van Deventer, and Walt
Disney Christmas, which were all part of a band with her husband many
years ago.
As Blake investigates the murder, he
finds that Michael Teal died almost a year ago in a hang-gliding
accident. When he questions Michael's wife, Lucy, he finds himself
smitten by this beautiful woman. Even though he shouldn't, Blake finds
himself spending more and more time with her. Since she is a possible
suspect, Blake keeps their meetings a secret.
Blake begins to fear that someone may be
killing off the old band members who once had a smash album entitled
All My Sad Dreaming. Then, Kobus van Deventer's body is found
alongside a road, an apparent victim of a hit and run. With only one
band member left, Captain James Blake realizes that he must move fast
before Walt Disney Christmas ends up dead also.
In All My Sad Dreaming is
a Mystery book written
by John Caulfield. The books stars Captain James Blake, a Cape Town,
South Africa, police
officer.
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Review |
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I found myself really
enjoying the mystery novel In All My Sad Dreaming
by John Caulfield. I have never been to South Africa, but I always
thought it would be an interesting place to visit, now that Apartheid
has ended. But from the way John Caulfield describes Cape Town, he makes
it seem like the town is full of murderers, bad people, and is a very
unsafe place to be. As the author is from the city, I am sure some of
what he says may be true, but it is also a book of fiction, so i don't
know what to believe.
The pace of the story moves
along at a good rate and I found myself saying in my head, "Mrs. Filmer
killed him. No, Mary Skyring, Christmas' wife, did it. No wait, Lucy
Teal is guilty." I just couldn't make up my mind, and that is what a
good mystery writer does. They keep the reader guessing. I really enjoy
this style of writing, which is why I absolutely love Agatha Christie.
She was the master and, obviously, John Caulfield is a fan also.
There is one thing about
this book that I didn't like. Now, I love to read and have been an avid
reader for over thirty years, and my wife is an even bigger than I, but
I found myself lost with a lot of the words that John Caulfield uses in
this book. At first, I found myself constantly asking my wife what a
word meant. She knew most of them, but there were even some that stumped
her. She started calling them S.A.T. words, like words you would only
ever see on the S.A.T. test in high school. You know, words you would
never, ever use in everyday conversations. Me asking her the definition
of all these words got old, so I stopped and just skipped over them. I'm
not sure why the author felt like he had to put so many of them in the
book, but it became a little annoying after a while, which is why I
could not rate this book an 8 or higher. He didn't need to show me how
intelligent he was by using fairly unused words.
Overall, In All My Sad Dreaming
by John Caulfield is a good mystery book that could have been better if
John had edited himself and not tried to impress me with all the big and
fancy words he knows. Okay, I feel like an idiot compared to him, which
is not the impression I want to have when I am done reading a book. So,
tone it down in the next book and maybe I will like it more. As it is, I
highly enjoyed the book, except for the Fancy McSchmancy words.
I rated this book a 7½ out of
10. |
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