Ad blimp

Ad blimp – Appeared and is mentioned in many books in the series. When Eve left the house early in Holiday in Death, “the first advertising blimps began to hawk the city’s wares.” Since the manager at Marianna Hawley’s building told Eve it was “five-fucking-thirty in the morning,” that must be the start time for ad blimps. In Judgment in Death, Eve noted an ad blimp past curfew, although it was unclear what time that was. In Golden in Death, Eve was out early: too early, by about a half hour, for the ad blimps to blast (so presumably about five a.m.), but not too early for the maxibuses and carts.

Rapture in Death (July 31 - September 8, 2058)

• An ad blimp was hawking a shoppers’ special at Bloomingdale’s: “Preseason sale on winter coats in the men’s, women’s, and unisex department, twenty percent off”

Holiday in Death (December 17-24, 2058)

• “Overhead the early airbuses farted cheerfully, and the first advertising blimps began to hawk the city’s wares.”
• “Overhead advertising blimps encouraged the masses toward a shopping frenzy with competing announcements of sales and products no consumer could live without.”
• “Eve stared hard at an airbus that blatted fiercely at an advertising blimp in its airspace.”

Midnight in Death (December 25, 2058 - January 1, 2059)

• A blimp was blasting Christmas tunes as dawn broke over the city.

Conspiracy in Death (January 12-21, 2059)

• From inside Cop Central: “[Eve] glanced toward the window wall where the glass tubes she avoided like poison carried cops, clerks, and civilians up and down the outside of the building. Beyond them she saw a pair of air support units scream off to the west, blasting between an advertising blimp and a commuter tram.”
• “Eve put her vehicle on auto, letting it drive aimlessly white she ate. And she thought. The city swirled around her, the bump and grind of street traffic, the endless drone of air commuters. Stores advertised their annual inventory clearance sales with the endless monologue from the blimps overhead or huge, splashy signs.”

Witness in Death (March 26-31, 2059)

• After the press conference about Richard Draco’s murder, Eve decided to drive home and take an hour or two to walk around and lose her bad mood. On the drive home, “she chugged and dodged through bad-tempered traffic and tried to block out the irritatingly chirpy sky blimp shouting about the new spring fashions on sale at Bloomingdale’s.”

Judgment in Death (April, 2059)

• An ad blimp touted the delights of a package deal to Vegas II: “Four days, three nights, round-trip and deluxe accommodations for two, all for the low-low-low price of twelve thousand and eighty-five.”

Betrayal in Death (May, 2059)

• “Airbuses carted patrons to the Sky Mall, and ad blimps cruised with their endless stream of chatter, trying to herd yet more into the shopping arenas. Buy and be happy. And tomorrow? Buy more.”
• After Eve took down the killer, Peabody brought her a cold patch with anti-inflammatories and a bottle of pain blockers instead of ice, telling her “Lieutenant, if you use this patch correctly, your face will not be swollen up like a beat-up ad blimp when you check in at the hotel to recon with security. Which means, Roarke won’t haul you off to the MTs or administer first aid himself. Since you particularly dislike both of those eventualities, I suggest you take what I got you and avoid this future annoyance.”

Seduction in Death (June 4-8, 2059)

• “Even the sky was packed - ad blimps, airbuses, tourist trams vying for air space.”

Reunion in Death (July 4-12, 2059)

• “The Dallas skyline was so different from the New York one - blimps and billboards announced rodeos, cattle drive tours, sales on cowboy boots and hats. And barbecue was king. They [Eve and Roarke] might as well be driving on Venus.”
• “An ad blimp crept by hyping rental condos on the Jersey shore.”

Portrait in Death (August 8-15, 2059)

• One of the people who found Kenby Sulu’s body, Maxville Drury, was an executive at Fines and Cox, an ad agency who did the blimps and the holoboards along the FDR. Eve took the opportunity to ask him, “Do you have any idea how irritating they are?” (He did.)

Imitation in Death (September 4-12, 2059)

• “Overhead in the hazy sky, ad blimps and tourist trams moved sluggishly.”

Remember When (September, 2059)

• Samantha Gannon was happy to be back in New York, mentioning the airtrams, blimps, and minishuttles strafing the sky.
• Eve told Mira that even though “you wouldn’t know [Mavis] was, ah, cooking anything in there [pregnant] if she didn’t advertise it, she (Mavis) and Leonardo might rent blimp space. He’s designing her all kinds of pregnant-chick clothes, but I can’t really tell the difference.”

Divided in Death (September 21-24, 2059)

• “Ad blimps blasted out their evening siren song of ’SALES. SALES. SALES. Fall blow-out in EVERY store at The Sky Mall. One hundred lucky customers would receive an in-Touch palm ’link ABSOLUTELY FREE. While supplies lasted.’”

Visions in Death (September, 2059)

• “[Eve] watched an airtram crammed with commuters streak by, and an air blimp hover, spewing out its announcements for sales, events, tourist packages. Her legs felt watery yet, so she stayed where she was, listening to the click of chopper blades, the blast of horns from the street below, the rattle of an airbus. It all teemed together, a cacophony that was a kind of music to her. A song she understood, and one that gave her a sense of place.”

Survivor in Death (October, 2059)

• An ad blimp was booming out about a “buy-one-get-one-half-off fall sale on winter coats” during Eve and Trueheart’s unsuccessful chase of Nixie’s killers.

Born in Death (January, 2060)

• “Overhead ad blimps were already touting their bargain of the day. “Who the hell cared about Valentine’s Day sales at the Sky Mall at this hour?” Eve wondered. Then she told Peabody she looked like an ad blimp in her thick, puffy coat that was the color of rusted metal.
• “On the way downtown, an ad blimp cruised overhead blasting the news of an INVENTORY BLOWOUT! and a RED DOT EXTRAVAGANZA! at Aladdin’s Cave at Union Square.”

Innocent in Death (February 9-15, 2060)

• “While Peabody rhapsodized about Mavis’s infant daughter, Eve listened to the music of New York. The blasting horns, the arguments, the rumbling ad blimps from overhead.”

Creation in Death (March 1-4, 2060)

• Eve and Roarke were watching an action vid with a midair collision of a tourist tram and an ad blimp, which Eve declared “Iced. Seriously iced.”

Salvation in Death (May, 2060)

• “Overhead, an air blimp blatted out a stream of Spanish that all seemed to revolve around the words Sky Mall! A sale, Eve supposed, was a sale in any language.”
• “The ad blimps cruising overhead and tying up air traffic didn’t cut through the cloud of irritation as they blasted their litany of Sale! Sale! Sale! (in English this time) at the Sky Mall.”

Indulgence in Death (July, 2060)

• In rural Ireland, Eve wondered where all the air traffic was. “She’d barely spotted a handful of airtrams, and not a single ad blimp lumbered overhead blasting out its hype on sales... God, she missed New York.”
• Once she was back in New York, she said, “It was good to be home. Driving downtown to Cop Central through ugly traffic, blasting horns, hyping ad blimps, belching maxibuses just put her in a cheerful mood. Vacations were great, but to Eve’s mind New York had it all and a bag of soy chips.”
• While Eve was waiting for Whitney to finish reading her report in his office, she saw a blimp lumbering through the sky with its flashing ad, a couple of shuttles zipping in a crisscrossing path, and a tram carrying a payload of tourists out his window.

Possession in Death (July, 2060)

• Eve “maneuvered through New York traffic, barely hearing the blasts of horns, the annoyingly cheerful hype of the ad blimps heralding midsummer sales at the Sky Mall...”

New York to Dallas (late summer, 2060)

• An ad blimp blasted out a jingle for a sale at the Skymall [sic] during the medal ceremony.

Celebrity in Death (October, 2060)

• It was just one of the many things Peabody worried about her butt becoming; as she watched McNab not eat his Triple C’s, letting them get soggy, she lamented, “’I don’t get you people who aren’t really hungry in the morning.’ The entire concept put her in a sulk. ’I wake up starving, then have to talk myself into not eating everything in sight so my butt doesn’t become an ad blimp.’” [He’s still upset over seeing K.T. Harris’s dead body the previous evening, since she played Peabody in The Icove Agenda and it hit a little too close to home.]
• Marlo Durn told Eve that she hated Harris, but didn’t want her dead. She planned to record her threatening Matthew Zank and was going to show the recording to Mason Roundtree and the producers, “and her life would be ruined. She’d have been lucky to get a part playing a housewife on an ad blimp.”
• “[Eve] felt like herself - maybe even just a little better due to the magic coat - when she drove downtown. She left the windows down so the brisk air could slap her cheeks, pleased that the ad blimps had yet to start their hyping lumber in the sky, and the snarl and piss of New York traffic could rage on without the blast from above. Too early for blimps, too early for most tourists. It felt like New York nearly belonged to New Yorkers.”

Thankless in Death (November 22-25, 2060)

• An ad blimp announces: “Black Friday mega-sales! Gobble up bargains while they last! Door-buster holiday sales at the Sky Mall.”

Festive in Death (December 20-24, 2060)

• The first ad blimp lumbered across the sky as [Eve] hit the edges of the West Village. It announced a last-minute SALE SALE SALE at the SkyMall running until 10 p.m. Christmas Eve. Jesus [Eve thought], even she wasn't so lame she waited till Christmas Eve to grab a gift. Then, amazing to her, it announced a door-buster SALE SALE SALE at the SkyMall beginning at 1 a.m. on December 26th. “Why would people do that? What could they possibly need to buy the day after Christmas, in the middle of the night the day after? Her second thought was that she believed she would self-terminate if she had to make a living in retail.”
• Later in the story, being out before the stores opened “didn't stop the ad blimps blasting out with a kind of frenetic desperation about how many days, hours, minutes shopping time were left.” and “a SkyMall blimp announced the first 200 paying customers would receive a FREE GIFT! She decided working security at the SkyMall ranked high on her list of worst ten jobs, right up there with shark tank cleaners - somebody had to do it - and proctologists.”
• At the end of the book, “an ad blimp blasted frantically through the dull gray sky, announcing THE LAST CHANCE! THE FINAL HOURS! so that Christmas Eve in New York took on the aura of the apocalypse.”

Obsession in Death (December 27-31, 2060)

• “Ad blimps maniacally touted the 'AFTER CHRISTMAS BLOW-OUT SALES!'”
• "The latest ad blimp had switched from post-Christmas sale to a RING OUT THE OLD, RAKE IN THE SAVINGS end-of-the-year theme.

Devoted in Death (mid-January, 2061)

• Ad blimps cheerfully blasted out news about NEW SPRING LINES! at the SkyMall when the temperature hovered at 28 degrees Fahrenheit.
• “[Eve] comforted herself that at least the weather held off the hyping ad blimps.”
• Later, Will Banner gawked at an ad blimp hawking a blizzard sale as it crept along a slate-gray sky.

Brotherhood in Death (January, 2061)

• “Ad blimps insisted on blatting on about Cruise Wear Specials!” Another ad blimp announced: Get your summer bikini body in January at Slimderize! Free consult! and Eve wondered if “a summer bikini body counted as cruise wear.”

Apprentice in Death (January 27-30, 2061)

• The sleet, mixed with snapping little bits of ice, didn’t stop the ad blimps blasting about cruise wear, white sales, or inventory clearances.

Echoes in Death (February 6-9, 2061)

• “Ad blimps blasted their relentless hype. Their current focus beat the retail drum for Valentine’s Day.”
• “Halfway downtown, [Eve] realized not a single ad blimp had drifted across the sky to blast its hyperactive news about sales on something, somewhere. She’d definitely take it... By the time they’d worked through the first five (interviews) on the list, the traffic was back in force. The ad blimps boomed out the thrill of the Blizzard of ’61 sales. Eve hated to admit it, but it all felt more normal.”
• After she wrapped up the case, she looked out the window. “Snow blackened against the curbs, people rushing to get somewhere else, traffic thoroughly pissed off. Horns blasting and ad blimps blaring. The city she loved, Eve thought. Her place. It looked absolutely perfect to her.”

Secrets in Death (February, 2061)

• “Ad blimps chugged through washed-out winter skies blasting hype for midwinter sales... If the cost of winter coats could be Slashed! Sixty Percent Off! in February, why didn’t stores charge less for them in, say, October, and move the damn inventory?”

Dark in Death (late February, 2061)

• “Thanks to the cat [waking her early for breakfast because Summerset was on vacation], [Eve] ran thirty minutes ahead of schedule. No ad blimps blasting yet, she noted...”
• (Eve’s commute home): “Blasting ad blimps, farting maxibuses, a bike messenger with an obvious death wish...”

Connections in Death (March, 2061)

• “The ferocity of the wind grounded the air blimps. It made a nice change to inch her way downtown without hearing the blasts about early spring sales and discounts on late winter cruises to wherever the hell.”
• “The air blimps were back, blasting out their hype from a blissfully blue sky.”

Vendetta in Death (April, 2061)

• Eve and Peabody “went outside, where life in New York hit full churn. Ad blimps blasting, traffic snarling, pedestrians surging.”
• “[Eve] did her best to ignore the bleating cheer of ad blimps announcing Spring Sales! Top New Fashion Trends! until she slid into the wealth and privilege of Carnegie Hill.”
• “Not yet dawn, too early for ad blimps or the smoking carts, for the angry snarls and snags of traffic, New York seemed almost peaceful.”

Golden in Death (April, 2061)

• Eve had to interview Thomas T. Thane, an ad executive at Your Ad Here. “His division handled ad blimps - a fact that Eve had to push aside to maintain any semblance of objectivity.” When he was a dick to her, she told him “we won't waste any more of the valuable time you spend thinking up blather to blast out of blimps than absolutely necessary.”

Shadows in Death (May, 2061)

• Eve gave Reo a quick version of Lorcan Cobbe's murder of Galla Modesto “as horns beeped, ad blimps blasted.”
• “The earlier start meant less traffic and no ad blimps. Always an advantage.”
• Lorcan had “all but taken out an ad blimp on his intentions [to kill Roarke]”

Faithless in Death (May, 2061)

• “Eve pulled out into the insane traffic, the cacophony of angry horns, the bellowing ad blimps, and the farting maxibuses that was New York in the spring. But what the hell; on Eve’s scale it was mag, any time of the year.”
• “Through the window behind [Whitney], Eve saw an ad blimp lumber over the city. Across its fat body flashed some hype for spring sales at the Sky Mall.”

Forgotten in Death (early June, 2061)

• “Driving home, [Eve] let the noise of the city wash over her. She didn’t bother to separate the blasting horns from the rumbling maxibuses, the rumbling from the overhyped shouts of sales and more sales from the overhead ad blimps.”

Abandoned in Death (June 7-9, 2061)

• “The first ad blimp of the day cruised over as she pushed through downtown traffic. It hyped sales on beachwear, which made her think of sun-washed beaches in Greece.”

Desperation in Death (late June, 2061)

• “[Eve] beat the worst of the traffic, and the morning cacophony of ad blimps...”
• “Just a muggy morning in the city, traffic snarling, air blimps blasting, people on their way to work...”

Encore in Death (June 28 - July 1, 2061)

• The ad blimps were out in full force, hyping summer sales.
• “The ad blimps came out to play, and [Eve] wondered how people who worked the night shifts and were just trying to get some damn sleep felt about that.”
• Eve assumed that Winnie's purse was stolen while she was strolling around Times Square like “it's a meadow in the spring” looking at the billboards and the blimps.

Also mentioned in the series are tourist blimps.

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