Refroidir Bleu

Refroidir Bleu is entertainment, pure and simple. You can liken it to a successful television movie that spawns a popular television series. There are no literary pretensions in this initial story of the author's 'Cool Blue' series, which introduces the reader to the locale and characters that are the foundation of the follow on stories.

The story opens with Michael sitting in an immobile vehicle waiting for the eye of a hurricane. Then, through flashback, the story switches to a poker game at Cool Blue, a nightspot on Saba, a dormant volcanic island in the Netherlands Antilles. Here we meet Patrick: Cool Blue's owner, retired U.S. Army NCO and best selling author in France. Michael: Cool Blue's builder, handyman and southeast Asia MIA; Karen: Cool Blue's poker game dealer; Duong: Cool Blue's electronics guru, North Vietnamese intelligence analyst and traitor; Greta: Cool Blue's poker playing guest and former Karen paramour.

The plot is a quest within a quest: Karen and Michael searching for the missing Greta who is herself searching for the reality of a consuming dream. Greta's trail leads across Central Florida beginning and seemingly ending in Cassadaga, a spiritualist community guided by a crippled Paul, a Druid, who knows the reality of Greta's dream and possibly the whereabouts of Greta herself. Complicating both quests is the imminent arrival of Irene, a major hurricane roaring across Florida.

The story is advanced primarily through the believable conversations of the characters. Filler descriptive narrative is minimal giving the reader's imagination full rein to envision each scene's environment.

One who is content to be called a 'writer' with no ambition of being labeled an 'author' penned the story. Cool Blue, the English translation of Refroidir Bleu, is an engaging, easy, and enjoyable read.