Mystery in Spiderville - Softcover

Williams, John Hartley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 022406214X ISBN 13: 9780224062145

Publisher: Random House UK, 2002

Synopsis

The main character—the protean and unkillable Spider Rembrandt—has six toes, sleeps in a grave, and dreams of congress with the pert and playful Reedy Buttons. Sucked into the vortex of Spider's philandering mind is a narrator—sometimes Spider's adversary, sometimes his victim—who lies upon a bed brooding on the absence of a nameless, brown-haired woman. He, too, is protean: full of passionate longings and homicidal tendencies. A surrealist film-noir that blends the forensic with the erotic, the seedy penny-dreadful and the lyric prose-poem, Mystery in Spiderville is one of the strangest, strongest and most arresting fictional debuts in years.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Alongside the names of James Hadley Chase and Erle Stanley Gardner we must now place that of John Hartley Williams—though Mystery in Spiderville is no run–of–the–mill hardboiled thriller. The décor is by Dali, the plot is a mix of Breton and Burroughs, and the main character—the protean and unkillable Spider Rembrandt—has six toes, sleeps in a grave, and dreams of congress with the pert and playful Reedy Buttons. Sucked into the vortex of Spider’s philandering mind is a narrator—sometimes Spider’s adversary, sometimes his victim—who lies upon a bed brooding on the absence of a nameless, brown–haired woman. He, too, is protean: full of passionate longings—and homicidal tendencies. Blending the forensic with the erotic, the seedy penny–dreadful and the lyric prose poem, Mystery in Spiderville cannot be pigeon–holed or summarized. It is simply one of the strangest and most arresting fictional debuts in years.

From the Inside Flap:

d erotic first novel – a cross between Ovid and Mickey Spillane.

This is no run-of-the-mill hard-boiled thriller. The decor is by Dali, the plot is a mixture of Breton and Burroughs, and the main character – the protean and unkillable Spider Rembrandt – has six toes, sleeps in a grave and dreams of congress with the pert and playful Reedy Buttons. A surrealist film-noir that blends the forensic with the erotic, the seedy penny-dreadful and the lyric prose-poem, Mystery in Spiderville cannot be pigeon-holed or summarized: it is one of the strangest, strongest and most arresting fictional debuts in years.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 022406214X
• ISBN 13: 9780224062145
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176