Discovery

We don’t have a library any more in Gosport, no, we have a Discovery Centre. It’s a bit like a library but with a coffee shop and museum. If you are interested check out the website:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/gdc.htm

I checked the online availability of the book, The Case of The Blue Chicken (A Sam Wallace book) by Jim Nelson online on the Hampshire library website and it appeared that Gosport did not have the book. I decided to have a look anyhow. A nice bright day on the South coast today and a quick trip to the library, I’ll call it that despite its reverential ‘Discovery Centre’ status. I arrived shortly after it opened and it was nice and quiet, not a bad little coffee shop to be honest and I feel ashamed to admit that since it opened a few years ago this was my first visit. I shall endeavour to go there more frequently, promise.

Sure enough the book was not present in the general fiction section, I checked the library computer system and it mirrored the response from the publically available online enquiry database, that is to say the book was not available in Hampshire. Disappointed I opted for a sausage sandwich and a cup of tea, it was a bit like drinking tea outside it tasted different, better. The cholesterol rush must have given me a burst of intuition, the coffee shop area is next to the teen section, separate from general fiction but containing the same type of thing (not sure who decides on what book qualifies for which section). I checked the teen section and sure enough there was a copy of the book.

If you followed the link from yesterday you would know the author describes it as this:

A humor novel, a spoof of the spy and detective genre.
THE CASE OF THE BLUE CHICKEN is a humorous novel, a spoof of the spy and detective genre. Reviewers have described it as "Tom Clancy, as written by Dave Barry!" It has absolutely no redeeming social value. It involves a nefarious plot by the tattered remnants of the Soviet Secret Service to turn the United States into radioactive grit. The main characters are Sam Wallace, a severely underemployed private detective, Tiffany, a mentally uncomplicated heiress who may or may not be an orphan, and Conchita, a somewhat undocumented maid. It also involves nuclear submarines, lavendar helicopters, giant electromagnets, and lemmings.

To be completely honest, this did not appeal and I could not be arsed to read it all of the way through, so I skimmed. Not great, well not my cup of tea, but in the last few pages there was a small piece of paper, photo below:

Before I even start to consider what these numbers are, first thoughts are coordinates, I’m a bit worried about the whole blue chicken to book to piece of paper link thing. Of course it could just be coincidence but I don’t really like or believe in coincidences. I dreamt about a blue bastard chicken, lo and behold I find a book and a piece of paper with some obviously meaningful numbers written on it.

I know I’m given to a paranoid bent so I will try not to give in to bizarre thoughts.

More tomorrow.