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Sometimes, just getting from point A to point B is an adventure in itself.  So it was as we left for our journey to New York to meet with best-selling author James Patterson for an exclusive preview of James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet.  

Not five minutes on the road to the airport and we already found ourselves standing in the drizzling rain – the front end of my son’s car bent skyward – waiting for the police to take an accident report and another ride to catch our flight.  A flight that we soon discovered had been cancelled and rescheduled for 7am the next morning, but not until after we had already arrived at the airport and then had to wait another 30 minutes for a ride to return us back to our starting point. 

Once back, a call to Priceline and our 2-night hotel stay was cancelled and refunded, but their ‘service’ department informed me that we were on our own to book another hotel as we had to check-in in less than 24 hours.  Thanks to Hotwire, we were able to book a hotel right in the heart of Times Square.  Were things finally beginning to look up?  Not actually, as I then spent the rest of the evening in bed with a fever as a result of running around in the rain.

Jump ahead to 6:30 am the next morning, only thirty minutes to our flight so of course the inefficient security check was backed up two hundred people deep.  The guard we spoke to informed us that he didn’t have the authority to move us up in the line, but of course, he did have the authority to decide that we could be terrorists and should be subjected to a strip search once we had passed through the metal detector. 

At this point, security was treated to an outbreak of my, uh, Tourette’s Disorder and the airport Gestapo, in turn, proved their efficiency by removing a dangerous tube of acne cream that was larger than the permitted 3ozs from our luggage.  We made our flight – thanks to one of those fellows who drive around the airport in those little cars - just as the plane doors were closing and buckled up – only to be informed a few minutes later by the pilot that they flight had been delayed.   

Finally, New York. And it’s raining – of course. And it’s cold – of course. And it’s only 9:30am and our meeting isn’t until 1:30 and, thanks to Priceline, we can’t check into our new hotel room until 3pm.  By 11:30am we can’t take the cold and the rain any longer and decide to see a movie, Prom Night, the only film showing that early and a bargain at $24 for two seats.  Have these people never heard of an early bird special?  If nothing else, it was money well spent as the ninety minute nap left me fresh for our meeting.

James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet Review