U For Undertow by Sue Grafton

I finished this in 2 days last week, right after I finished The Rise of the Fourth Reich.

My 4th book for the year. Light and easy reading. A lot of flashback employed by the author, from the present to the heady hippie days of the 60s. They had so many other names for it.... flower generation, summer of love. Though many were passionate about peace, I think it was also used by many others to lead that sort of crazy hippie life that only a young person would subject themselves too.... (there are exceptions of course).

The novel is about how privilege kids tend to get themselves into all these crazy pursuits compounded by the angst of teenage years. But privileged kids have their parents to bail them out. I guess maybe that's why even though well-to-do kids tend to do less well than their less-well-to-do counterparts, they somehow still do okay in life but with a arrogance that comes their downfall at the same time. They think money and influence can buy their way through... again nothing new. The same is probably happening around us...

Anyway, throw in an unsolved murder and colour up the novel with the hippie days craziness, I'd say they give the novel quite an interesting bend cos for people like me who did not live through that period, the vivid descriptions help to give an idea..... I'd give this a book a 7 out of 10.

And I've been busy getting books for the upcoming break.... yoohoo!!! I've Tom Clancy, Frederick Forsythe and some other old favourite authors of mine. Plus another book from Thomas which I hope to finish. 8)