Welcome to REID'S READER, a site renewed weekly and devoted to the appreciation and discussion of books old and new by bibliophile, critic and reviewer Nicholas Reid. Each week REID'S READER offers Something New, Something Old and Something Thoughtful to readers and browsers. REID'S READER will sometimes feature guest reviewers and will sometimes offer general book news, but it does not run publishers' publicity material. Monday, October 22, 2012 Something New We feature each week Nicholas Reid's reviews and comments on new and recent books Who is the invisible rider? By definition, he is a rider who cannot be seen easily . In this short novel, he is the lawyer Philip Fetch, married with two kids, who often rides his bicycle through Wellington's suburbs. Motorists sometimes fail to see cyclists, so the invisible rider is often in danger of being skittled. But Philip Fetch is invisible in a less literal sense, too. He is the working husband and father who is often ignored, and rarely analysed, in our literature. Not of interest to most novelists and social commentators, he is therefore invisible. The Invisible Rider , Kristen McDougall's first book, is such a good piece of writing that I am afraid of over-praising it lest I hex a talented emerging writer's career. I will limit myself, therefore, to listing the book's verifiable merits. The first is McDougall's acute observation of the external conditions of Philip's life -- in this account of a suburban man trying to be happy, Philip has