Synopsis: The Blindman's Hat by Bernard Cohen Vernon is an expatriate Australian journalist working in Manhattan for a quality New York daily and Dida is a freelance mobile telephone technician. Muffy is Vernon's little white dog -- and the world's cutest urban philosopher. When Vernon falls so deeply in love with Dida that he stops going to work to be with her, they could not have predicted his former employers would ask, plead, beg, threaten, kidnap and probably even murder to convince Vernon to return to the workplace. Vernon, Dida and Muffy determine to get to the bottom of all this. They search through dodgy Wall Street transactions, oppressive correspondence and muffled answering machine messages, and confront good twin/bad twin routines and failed hypnotherapy. Always, Vernon worries about his dwindling Australianness. The Blindman's Hat is Paul Auster with added exuberant silliness, Sara Paretsky stuffed full of red herrings, and Hergé overcome by lust. Click here to read extracts. "Refreshingly paranoid" - Brian Castro. The Blindman's Hat won the 1996 Australian/Vogel Award.