Fish, Barrel, Etc.

While bookstore browsing today, I saw something that the only phrase I can think of for it is "anti-marketing." The second post-Robert B. Parker "Jesse Stone" novel has just been released, and it is called Fool Me Twice.

You may remember that Michael Brandman, a screenwriter for the Jesse Stone television movies based on Parker's character, was tapped by the Parker estate to continue the series after the author died. You may also remember that his initial volume, Killing the Blues, was a blisteringly bad piece of work that would make Leonard Pinth-Garnell say, "No thanks. I have standards."

Naming Brandman's second Stone throw Fool Me Twice invites -- nay, begs -- for the kind of mocking review that should be read aloud in a pinched English or William F. Buckley accent. It's like sending a 40-pound second-grader with half-inch thick taped glasses, a pocket protector and a holster for his inhaler to the National Playground 6th Grade Bully Convention at lunch time while he's holding a $20 bill.

But I may never know how bad Fool Me Twice is, because, as in the proverb from which the title is drawn, I've been fooled by Brandman once and I ain't a-wastin' my money on his second effort. I have a friend who sends me a passel o' books now and again that he gets from some of his friends who work in publishing and if that collection includes Fool Me Twice I may -- doubleplus repeat may -- read it then so I can indulge my inner snotty New Yorker magazine review writer.

On the other hand, that would mean acknowledging in public that I read Fool Me Twice and, like Mr. Pinth-Garnell, I have standards.