When you have a hobby as intricate and time-consuming as cipher mysteries, once in a while it’s rather nice to get away from it. And so for a bit of low-key escapism, I settled down the other day to watch Roman Polanski’s recent film “The Ghostwriter” (based on Robert Harris’ novel). This stars Ewan McGregor as a ghostwriter drafted in to a remote island somewhere off New Old Haven to tidy up the memoirs of a recently-retired (and rather stressed) British Prime Minister. The film’s conceit is that the ghostwriter of the title preceded McGregor, who in fact does a rather dippy job of rehashing his work, only realising too late the dark secrets found (and hidden in plain sight) by that first ghostwriter.
Which, of course, means… aaaaaaargh! Polanski’s last reel turns “The Ghostwriter” into a cipher mysteries film! Be warned – there is no escape from cipher mysteries these days, they’re everywhere! =:-o