Rosewell Incident

Finished "The Broker" a couple of nights ago. Once he got away from Italy the book became more formulaic, but even so, a pleasant read. Am now finally reading "The Clovis Incident" by Peri Tashkent (not Tashkent, that's a country, but something similar). This book features continually on the Dorothy L mail list, so I've been meaning to read it for a long time. It has been relatively expensive on Amazon UK (£7 for a paperback) so I have been waiting for it to come up second hand, or a reprinted mass market paperback. I finally gave up and bought it. Not sure that it is my cup of tea. So far it is unreal, a comedy/feminist/alien abduction crime story set in New Mexico, near Rosewell (yes, that Rosewell). I am rounghly 75 pages in and it is not so much the science fiction aspects that seem out of place, but the strange behaviour of the characters. For example the main character is fired before the book starts but other than as a plot device this does not seem to figure in her feelings or memories. Then she meets a friend but although the friend takes her to her house (or more accurately, grounds) when they first meet up, the main character does not know the address or how to find the house later on in the book. Then there is a strange detective who crops up now and again. And purchasing of whipped cream, with constant consumption of steak, coffee and alchohol - is this meant to be funny or what? All the characters seem to act as if detached from real life. Perhaps they will all turn out to be hallucinations (the heroine has them regularly) or aliens, or there will be some clever answer to this. At the moment it just reads like amateur writing. Inventive plot --- the job Sasha starts out the book going to Clovis for is as a PR for the town, to make "Clovis man" as big a draw as the Rosewell incident continues to be for Rosewell.