"Brute Parker ran the all-night gun shop on the corner of Dive and Ride, and it was a valuable service he offered. Anyone needing a gun fast at three in the morning ran round to Parker's store to view the extensive range. But nobody ever haggled with Brute Parker whose philosophy was, 'Well whatever it was, it's dead now'.

"Beerlight, the city of all our futures, is not a safe place. Crime -- occasionally sophisticated, normally violent, always hilarious in its unintended effects -- is the motor of the city's economy. Weaponry, rather than fast cars or designer clothes, is the ultimate status symbol. The populace is dedicated to law-breaking, politically incorrect views and hurling abuse and hand grenades at each other.

"The cast of hoodlums includes burglar extraordinaire Billy Panacea, Kicker Charlie the casino-owner, conman-cum-lawyer Harpoon Specter, Henry Blince the donut-obsessed Chief of Police, Gerty Hundred Ram the unwitting bank-robber and other fun-loving felons who hang out at the Delayed Reaction Bar on Valentine Street reading the Parole Violators Bugle.

"A deranged descendant of William Burroughs and Damon Runyon, the narrator is referred to only as 'the clown' by his fellow criminals. Like all wise jesters, he holds up a mirror to our world." [jacket blurb, UK pbk, 1994]

"Prodigiously paranoid routines delivered with a toxic fizz. A catalogue of synapse-scorching similes any bankrupt Martian poet would kill for. Watch them scatter like buckshot through the works of all self-respecting thieves and plagiarists". --Iain Sinclair.

Highly recommended.