Below is the comment from an inmate who has never stayed at TRM previously. His truck broke down on the Desert Road so he was “delivered” here to wait for two days until the repairs were completed. Fortunately he discovered this – quote: “interesting and informative” new book, TONGARIRO SKULDUGGERY, to pass the time. He had to buy one before leaving as he suggested he read a lot and it was the most enjoyable book he had read for many years. So that was nice to hear from a completely independent source who was not even an angler. But it was what he posted on Facebook that needs elaboration.
“I am half way through the book in a day and a bit. Interesting and informative……. I am so glad that the “grey pages” are included as it gives the human side of the whole saga.”
Other readers have also commented on the grey pages so below is the blurb from the Introduction to explain the reason.
“Once the rough stuff was completed it was perused and trashed by carefully selected friends who acted as editors. They were asked to provide a critical assessment to help the novice author. Their advice varied. ALl were very enthusiastic about the plot. Some suggested the coherence of the story line could be sometimes in danger of being lost in the wealth of interesting background information that I called research.
Nearly all the writers suggested the sub-plots had captured a glorious tapestry, apart from one who preferred to strip out all the irrelevancies such as the motel and the women involved in the sub-plots entirely to reduce it to a “novella”. Having composed or stolen much of the manuscript, I struggled to prune it. So a challenging compromise was to leave the sub-plots in, but printed on a grey background.
According to SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed is the manager of everything at TRM), any book deliberately written in varying shades of grey is certain to be a best seller. The shades of grey in this story are in a sultry steamy seduction scene, which was left completely uncoloured and unabridged to help sales.
The ambitious challenge was to enable readers to decide for themselves if the background information or historic evidence is of interest, or whether to move on to the next gripping chapter. I recommend every word should be devoured of course. It is such an interesting mixture of fact and fiction that even the author is now struggling to identify the difference.
If you selected this as another comprehensive trout fishing guide then you may be disappointed but I can’t apologise. It is far better than just another trout fishy story.”
Only available at Tongariro River Motel…