I'm Dying Here

"This is a comic, crazy, original crime novel. You won't find another one like it this year, or, more likely, ever." Bill Crider R. Doubting Thomas Perdue, tough Aussie former P.I. and jailbird, is in trouble, and it can only get worse. Tom's *Feng shui* consultancy implodes when some bastard drives a Mack truck through his heritage office. Fatal things keep happening to his phones. And who's been blabbing about his racehorse-doping past? The love of his life has made a ten-year vow of celibacy to the Virgin Mary. Tom's Goth daughter's girlfriend's obese sister has vanished, extremely foul play suspected. Meanwhile, an unusual racing camel named Nile Fever has become an animal of interest to the Australian Federal Police, and Tom is up to his neck in the middle of the mess. I'm Dying Here is a darkly comic crime caper that leaves no taboo, or cell phone, unviolated.

Set in Australia, this offbeat crime novel from collaborators Broderick and Barnes (The Hunger of Time) strives for laughs at the expense of pretty much everything else, with uneven results. In the first chapter, someone drives a Mack truck into Feng Shui Solutions, the consulting office of the book's hero, Recherché Doubting Thomas Purdue, while Purdue is interviewing an attractive prospective female client. What starts out as satire eventually takes a serious turn with the revelation of Purdue's tragic backstory. A drug-sniffing dog foiled his attempt, at age 21, to smuggle dope seeds into the U.S. After his conviction, Purdue went out of his way to spend an extra half-year in prison to bulk himself up, unaware that his wife was dying. Racing-camel doping, UFO mutilations and cyber-stalking all play a part in the zany plot. (Aug.)
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