I wondered about that too -- why the Premier of Nova Scotia is missing in ULTIMATUM. Maybe she's just late because she's a lady. Fellas, back me up.
Reading ahead in EXXONERATION, there are a couple of women, all of them described as small and intelligent, like iPhones, I guess. There are also quite a lot of briefings that begin with variations on the deadly, "Welcome gentlemen, as you know..." And some laughably useless illustrations, one of Pearson International Airport, and one a pretty simple drawing of rocket, like someone might doodle, in a meeting where he's lost interest, because the speaker said "Welcome gentlemen, as you know..."
It's utterly random when Rohmer decides to give you information omnipotently, and when he decides to have it come out of some character's mouth. (It also sounds exactly the same.)
I'd love to know who his influences are. I mean, who he thinks he's writing like. Arthur Hailey? Frederick Forsyth? Leon Uris? Morris West? Edna Ferber?
What makes a guy decide to write a novel when he seems to be actively hostile to the concept of "characters" or "conflict"?
I've just a little way into Exxoneration, and anything can happen, but I still haven't encountered a scene where anyone disagrees with anyone else. In a typical Rohmer chapter, one guy tells another guy his plan and the other guy says "that sounds like a good plan."
And often the plan is "let's have a meeting."
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