Sum of Life: Book One: The Worst kind of Lies by John Patrick Lamont is the first of a trilogy about the inner workings of the insurance industry. It only starts there. The book eventually spreads into a tangled web of intrigue, crime, and all sorts of debauchery.

The book has two very interesting characters. One is a villainess named Cerbere (pronounced Sir Bear) Kuislane. She is ruthless, vindictive and literally strikes fear in the hearts of her subordinates at the insurance firm. Some of the employees will not even say her name out loud. Cerbere is slender, seductive, beautiful and has albinism. She is the special assistant to the President and CEO of the company. She is ambitious and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

Cerbere, the way I see it, has a vendetta against the world. She seethes with vengefulness and –at least in the first book- seems to have no real friends or confidants. Almost everyone in the book sees Cerbere as Creole or Cajun. She is in fact, Black.

The first things that struck me about Cerbere were her pink eyes and red hair. This confused me a little. In reading this description it seems to me that Cerbere is an odd one-of-a-kind composite of at least two types of albinism. I’m not sure this is possible. Most of the people I know either have reddish blond hair and hazel eyes, blue eyes and platinum hair or pink eyes and white hair. This is dependant on the amount of tyrosine present in the individual. Her pink eyes and red hair plus the fact that her skin appears to have normal pigmentation suggests that she may only have ocular albinism and not OCA. She may dye her hair, but the author has not said so.

The other character goes by several names. My Favorite name so far is Dante. Dante is an undercover special agent. I assume he is mistaken for White since no one so far in the book has made any comments about him. The character also makes me think that he has used his appearance to mingle with the White population and not be detected as Black.

I was surprised that Cerbere did not recognize Dante as another Black Albino, even though she sat directly across from him at a café table. In my experience, we usually recognize each other, even with dyed hair, wigs, extensions and whatever else we may use. I suppose I would not recognize another pan-African with albinism if they had cosmetic surgery or used extensive dark make-up. I have seen and met such individuals. But Dante, in this part of the story is using no such devices.

The other thing I found odd about Dante is the fact that he drives a very fast sports car. Yes, people with albinism drive. Pan-African PWA (people with albinism) who are Tyrasonise Positive (Ty-pos) have better eyesight and may be able to pull this off. However: our eyesight is still below what it might take to weave in and out of traffic at high speeds: especially without our specialized eyewear. Even bioptics don’t compensate for the lower level of depth perception due to strabismus.

I don’t find these oversights distracting. I am merely bemused. These are probably technicalities that only a specialist or an albino would know.

I also have to say that I am pleased that these characters are written to be human, not supernatural, apparitions, witches, circus performers or any of the other characters I have come across in literature.

John promises me that book two will have more of Cebere and Dante. This could get interesting.

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