Gun, with Occasional Music

Conrad Metcalf is a PI with a problem. He's been hired to follow a straying wife. Nothing unusual about that, except his client ends up dead in a cheap hotel room and the chief suspect for the murder wants Metcalf to prove his innocence. Nothing if not persistent, Metcalf's search for justice takes him to seedy bars, gangland hideouts and finally costs him six years of his life in the freezer before the real killer is brought to justice. So far, so normal for a detective who's as hard-boiled as a ten-minute egg. But the 'freezer' in Metcalf's case is a cryogenic icebox, designer drugs are not only legal but almost compulsory, and your freedom depends on the amount of karmic points on your credit card: we are a long way from the sort of mean streets that Raymond Chandler used to write about. In fact, Lethem uses a quote from Chandler as a frontispiece to this tale of double crossing, dames and drug dependency. But whereas Chandler was only referring to a metaphorical 'kangaroo in a dinner jacket', Metcalf has to deal with the real thing, only this one carries a gun and he knows how to use it. Genetically enhanced animals that walk and talk may be nothing new in Metcalf's world, but Lethem's approach to the fusion of two distinct and well-respected genres is both new and breathtaking in its completeness. The patter is as snappy as you'd expect, the broads as beautiful as you could wish for and the killers as deadly and as devious as you always feared they would be. This is a high-octane mix of the familiar and the alien and Conrad Metcalf proves once and for all that old PIs never die, they just get better drugs. And as for what Delia Limetree stole from him, don't ask - the answer is liable to give you sleepless nights. This is a must for all lovers of detective and science fiction alike. (Kirkus UK)