Improper use of Library Materials and other Details

[bettymac]

I thought the author's use of having Piet state how much time he had till he went to prison very effectively made me aware of time passing...added suspense to the story...

[literature]

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vpenning wrote:

I also wonder about the tulips. Though it seems logical, I know from experience that petals are not that firm...and wonder would it actually hold anything.

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What comes to mind with hiding drugs in the tulips.  Did you ever stuff squash flowers?  I've done it and the petals are so very delicate, have to be handled with extreme care, otherwise they rip.  I've very carefully put a goat cheese mixture at the bottom of the petals (minus the condoms, of course) and very carefully twisted the tips of the petals to hold the mixture in and then baked them.  This is by no means a prerequisite for Piet's trade!

[MomOf2Turds]

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bettymac wrote:

I thought the author's use of having Piet state how much time he had till he went to prison very effectively made me aware of time passing...added suspense to the story...

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I thought the same thing!  It made me want to just keep turning the pages to see what was going to happen next.  The countdown really got me going.

[crazylilcuban]

I was pretty much fine with much of the graphic detail (I work in a law office that works on death penalty cases, I see far more gruesome things than I care to know about on a pretty regular basis), but I found myself mostly intrigued by Piet and his interesting and unique methods -- the tulips were an especially intriguing idea; I found myself wondering how they would hold up. 

It did break my heart just a bit that he hollowed out the books, but I do sort of love the idea of books potentially saving his life, in an indirect way. And at least he chose ones that seemed interesting! 

[Readingrat]

I found the whole scene of recording the "secret meeting" with the Swedish officials a bit bizarre.  To me it seemed slightly out of character that a man so careful and meticulous would put such a long microphone wire on a micro-recorder - especially knowing where he was planning on putting the recorder.

[elaine_hf]

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Readingrat wrote:

I found the whole scene of recording the "secret meeting" with the Swedish officials a bit bizarre.  To me it seemed slightly out of character that a man so careful and meticulous would put such a long microphone wire on a micro-recorder - especially knowing where he was planning on putting the recorder.

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I think it is BECAUSE he is so careful and meticulous that he recorded the meeting - he needed some 'insurance'. And I don't think his 'hiding place' for the recorder is a new concept, just one that most of us never have to consider!  

[camibones]

Ha - I'm such a bibliophile that I cringed when Piet cut those books open. How could someone do such a thing to those poor innocent books? All the violence, the murder, I took that in stride in the context of the novel, but the books? I actually gasped when he ripped out the pages. What a ninny