^ BIB - It really is. So much for Clarke trying to paint himself as some objective truth-bringing maverick.
So you've read it all, Betty? Without asking you for chapter and verse of the rest of the book, do you think it furthered the case against CB as regards MM in any way? Or is it just as it sounds, Clarke taking all that's known and dressing it up as new news with him at the crucial centre of it?
Definitely the latter. It’s basically just a book of character development (sorry, JC!). You learn a bit more about the backgrounds/lives of some of the main players but there’s nothing major in it.
One bit I did find interesting was JC’s visit to Tunnels Restaurant in Alcossebre, Spain. There are people in that town that are still convinced to this day that they saw MM with CB in that restaurant, then leaving and getting into his Westfalia together. They were so convinced that they wrote down the German plates. They seem credible, and they reckon he’s been there since that day - though, why they didn’t call the cops anytime they saw him after that when they felt the need to at the time, and why JC doesn’t ask this of them, I don’t know. Most frustratingly, he tells us what that plate number was but there’s no follow up. Zero mention of it after that.
Later, JC talks to HCW and he asks British tourists who were in Portugal
and Spain at the time of her disappearance to go through their holiday pictures/videos.
“I cannot tell you exactly what we are looking for, but of course the best thing would be a photo of Madeleine on it, then we would know who she was with.”
I can’t help but think the link to Spain and possibly the Alcossebre sighting could be legit. Or at least, JC wants us to think there’s a legit link.
Strangely, what’s convinced me most of CB’s guilt was HCWs reaction to JC bringing up the letter where CB called the whole thing “scandalous” and for HCW to resign;
“When I put this to Wolters he laughed out loud and continued to say they had ‘concrete evidence’ that Brueckner was guilty and that it would ‘just take more time to conclude the case.’
Pretty blasé from the prosecutor there
Also, NF gets put across as some sort of Mafiosa. Doesn’t speak to her father anymore, he thinks she’s up to her eyeballs in it. Anytime journos knock on her door the neighbours gang up on them, start making phone calls and these heavies show up out of nowhere. The cops also get involved so chances are the heavies are cops. HCW makes a point of stressing that she’s just a witness and not a suspect… Then goes on to say his department are investigating the 100,000€ robbery. Bit strange just. No one else seems to be as well protected.
If nothing else, it was a good refresher for me after having been away from the forum for so long!
