Sunday, June 7, 2020
Books I'd like to read
Every once in awhile I think of a book I'd like to read. Only, no one has written it. Theoretically I could write it, but there are two things about that:
1. Writing books is hard! Yes, in the last seven years I have written ten books of essays, but I had to trick myself into doing it, like eating an elephant one tiny nibble at a time. Also, no one has made these essays technically into books, which is where the real work comes in.
2. Writing books is awfully close to being nothing like reading books. This may be obvious to you, but I am prone to bouts of selective amnesia as regards this lesson.
So I would like someone else to write these books, only exactly as I would do it, so that I could read them.
Which is a long way of saying:
I thought of a book I'd like to read today.
Here it is:
A brilliant lunatic is systematically killing the richest most powerful people in the world and no one can stop him. No security or army can prevent his brilliant assassinations. No reward, no matter how lavish, has borne fruit. No police department, with every tool available, has had even the smallest of successes.
Meanwhile the disgraced former rising star of Interpol, Jake Epstein, is quietly working as a security consultant when he begins to be taunted by this killer who is breaking down the world order. But with desperate governments realizing Jake is the only link or lead there has ever been to the murderer, Jake is offered a team and resources to go after the lunatic. He reluctantly agrees and a deadly cat and mouse game begins!
As Jake, the former prodigy of Interpol, narrows in on his deadly target, more and more of the rich and powerful die.
And strangely, as the super rich and the leaders of the world die one after another, the world, astonishingly, becomes way better. The CEOs of massive corporations start eschewing money and giving it away in lavish acts of kindness. Their lives are spared. Countries are increasingly helmed by self-effacing, reluctant leaders working in collaboration. Peace breaks out. Social justice. Wealth distribution. Thing aren't perfect of course, but they've never been so... promising.
But murder is murder, and Jake pursues his quarry, narrowing in as the world gets better and better. The killer is clever beyond belief, but Jake is on a mission, and seeking redemption.
I'm not really sure how it ends. Maybe Jake corners his villain and ambiguously let's him go?
Maybe Jake turns out to be the killer all along?
How about: The killer is a woman and it's a love story, and they get together in the end?
Or perhaps Jake's target could die in a climactic showdown, only for there to be the suggestion that Jake will take up his mantle?
I don't know. Surprise me. I don't really like knowing how the book ends, though I do insist that the ending should be somewhat happy.
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