CHASING HINDY

The author sent me a copy of his novel to read and review:

Can a female patent lawyer from California be exciting enough to carry an entire story? I don’t know...I wasn’t fired up. Yea, I know a few authors have given certain character’s a mundane or unusual occupation and made them into a star. Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon (a Harvard professor of religious symbology) is one of them. And I know G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown (a fictional Roman Catholic priest) was a detective that generated 53 short stories from 1910 to 1936, but really...a patent attorney? Since the author, Darin Gibby, is also a patent attorney, he probably felt compelled to shape his character out of his own roots. I’m not saying that his book is substandard, because it’s not. It’s just that the subject matter and subsequent mystery felt kinda humdrum to me. Although I have to say that Mr. Gibby did a yeoman’s job striving to make the novel stimulating and according to most reviewers...he succeeded. Each to his own. So what’s hot in the world of patent attorneys?  

New and cheaper energy technologies, of course! Meet Addy, the newest partner of the law firm of Wyckoff and Schechter. Addy also dabbles in alternative energy with her own experiments in her red Ford Mustang pulling a tethered hydrogen-filled balloon. “The retrofitted Mustang was really powered by four electric motors using electricity produced by solar panels and a conventional fuel cell.” What? Never mind, it’s too complicated to explain any further. While in traffic, “Her heart stopped. In the car next to her someone was pointing a bazooka-sized gizmo at her balloon...a flare shot out, aimed straight at her floating ball of hydrogen.” Who is this guy? “The dirigible burst into a giant fireball, then slowly deflated and floated toward the Shelby’s crimson hood.”Just as the “molten mass of goo” engulfed her, someone pulled her out of the car. Her rescuer said that he was able to snap a picture (with his phone) of the attacker leaving the scene. He says, “You can kind of see a tattoo on his forearm. The police will love this.” Since she had no licence to pull a balloon filled with hydrogen, her car was impounded.

Her boss at the law firm, Perry Tomkins summons her to his office. He is not mad. He feels the incident seen on TV gave the firm’s Green Division a uplift. She is nervous, but Perry says, “So stop fidgeting. In fact, the partners - I mean the rest of the partners - consulted, and we’re cautiously pleased about the news coverage. Two of them even called you a crusading green lawyer.” By the way, a FBI agent, Jesse Long, gets the picture of the man with the tattoo on his arm. What part will this agent play in this story? Even though I said that I was somewhat bored with this story, I know how to write a review to effectuate excitement. What do you think? Are you excited? Anyway, since Perry’s wife has recently passed away, he asks Addy to represent the firm at the Asian Patent Conference in Hanoi. Addy nodded, “Not only would she get to visit her birthplace but there was a vast, new market for her to tap into. She’d go the first year, learn the ropes, soak up the the etiquette and protocols, then be prepared the following year with a strategy.” She decides to go to Vietnam.

On her first day in Vietnam, Addy meets Quinn Moon from Korea. He works for a company called WTG (what does that stand for). Is he the same man that pulled her out of the burning Mustang and took the picture of the assailant’s tattooed arm. He says to Addy, “We should talk once you’re settled in.” Addy is accosted on a darkened alley as she tries to walk to her hotel. The assailant says to her, “Go home to where you belong. No talking to anyone. Vietnam doesn’t want you. And trust me, you don’t want to talk to anyone here at the conference. Nobody. Mind your own business. If anyone approaches you to talk about some invention, you leave it alone. Just leave it alone.” Addy meets Quinn the next day at a conference charity event and finds out that he is the man that helped her in California. Why did he follow her to Vietnam? She is upset that he followed her. Quinn says, “No, let me explain. I need a U.S. patent attorney - a really good one - who I can trust...you were the top one on my list, but you hightailed it to Vietnam. So I had to follow you here.” Is he telling the truth?

On page 44, Quinn says to Addy, “I’ll let you in on my secret - at least at a high enough level that you can understand the stakes, and why people want to stop me. I’ve invented a technology that will allow a car to run on water...and I want you to be the one to clear the legal hurdles so everyone can have a water - fueled car.” So there you go, I’ve set up the story. You will have to buy your own copy to find out how all this boils down. I know (that) I said the idea of a patent attorney as a heroine was boring, but Darin Gibby did a great job digging himself out of a possible hole. (occupational jail?) Haha.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: I talked about Father Brown in the first paragraph. Did you know that Father Brown has been a British TV show since 2013 on BBC One? It stars Mark Williams as Father Brown, who uses his own wits to solve mysteries. His persona is equivalent to Columbo, the USA TV show that starred Peter Falk. Same folksy and shrewd way of solving crimes.

Another author that comes to my mind is Dick Francis. He never uses a detective, or a cop to solve the mysteries in his novels. Most of the time, he uses a horse jockey to solve his crimes. But he has also written novels using a painter, an inventor, a wine merchant, an architect, and an airline pilot to unravel his puzzling novels. Go figure!