John D. MacDonald: Cinnamon Skin

John D. MacDonaldin dekkari ilmestyi alunperin vuonna 1982, ja nyt se on saatavissa e-kirjana: Cinnamon Skin (Random House, 2013; ISBN 978-0-307-82681-7). Teos on Travis McGee -sarjan toiseksi viimeinen.

Romaani kertoo peloista, ja pelkojen voittamisesta, siitä että kuka tahansa voi sortua pelkoon kun oikeanlainen tilanne osuu kohdalle:

There are no hundred percent heroes.

Every man can be broken when things happen to him in a certain order, with a momentum and an intensity that awaken ancient fears in the back of his mind. He knows what he must do, but suddenly the body will not obey the mind. Panic becomes like an unbearably shrill sound.

No, onneksi meillä on Travis McGee, joka pistää asiat ojennukseen, peloista huolimatta. Tällä kertaa McGeen ystävän Meyerin sukulainen Norma kuolee laivan räjähtäessä pommi-iskussa, ja syylliseksi epäillään terroristeja Etelä-Amerikasta. Mutta sitten käykin ilmi, että pommi-iskun taustalla oli jotain muuta, eikä tapaus ollut ainoa laatuaan.

Aika ajoin MacDonaldilla on erikoislaatuisia huomioita elämänmenosta, esimerkiksi siitä mitä tuleman pitää, kun tietokoneet muuttavat maailmaa:

Walking back through the mall to the exit nearest our part of the parking lot, we passed one shop which sold computers, printers, software, and games. It was packed with teenagers, the kind who wear wire rims and know what the new world is about. The clerks were indulgent, letting them program the computers. Two hundred yards away, near the six movie houses, a different kind of teenager shoved quarters into the space-war games, tensing over the triggers, releasing the eerie sounds of extraterrestrial combat. Any kid back in the computer store could have told the combatants that because there is no atmosphere in space, there is absolutely no sound at all. Perfect distribution: the future managers and the future managed ones. Twenty in the computer store, two hundred in the arcade.

Ei hassummin ennustettu vuonna 1982. Ja tässä pohdintaa kuntoilusta:

The body was shaped by the need to run long distances on resilient turf, to run very fast for short distances, to climb trees, and to carry loads back to the cave, so any persistent exercise you do which is not a logical part of that ancient series of uses is, in general, bad for the body. A succession of deep knee bends is destructive, in time. As are too many pushups. As is selective muscle development through weightlifting. As is jogging on hard surfaces. A couple of years of such jogging and you are very likely never to walk in comfort again. Man is a walking animal, perfectly designed for it. The only more efficient human energy use is the bicycle.

Romaani liikkuu öljynporausteollisuuden parissa, ja pommi-iskussa kuollut Norma oli ollut varsinainen velho tähän liittyvässä tietojenkäsittelyssä, josta MacDonald kirjoittaa hyvinkin tietäväiseen tapaan:

The thing is, she had a knack of sensing what was pertinent information and what was junk. With all the pertinent data in the computer, it could draw you a map of the subsurface structures that was clean and pretty, without anomalies that give you questionable areas. Norma put us out front of a whole mob of little exploration companies. She could take the series of computer maps and go into a trance, dreaming of what the earth was like at that place once upon a time, and she'd put down a little red circle with an N inside it. Her mark. Drill here. [...]

Ei hassumpi tämä romaani, ja vaikka jännärissä on jopa yliluonnollisia aineksia, kokonaisuus pysyy kasassa. Kyllä MacDonald kirjoittaa osasi.