Mike McQuay is one of my all-time favorite writers. His novelization of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is a classic in the future-noir genre. This is the 1st in his equally awesome pulp science fiction series of novels featuring the endearingly sarcastic and cynical private investigator, Mathew Swain. This book is dedicated, like all of the books in the Swain series, to Raymond Chandler. It's a perfect choice because no one except Andrew Vachss writes better in the style that Chandler helped create than Mike McQuay. It might not be Shakespeare but its tightly written, fast-paced and enjoyable on all levels. HOT TIME IN OLD TOWN has echoes of THE LONG GOODBYE and I, THE JURY in terms of its plot; reading any of the Mathew Swain books will certainly reveal the debts owed to McQuay by William Gibson and the sciptwriters of Blade Runner and a whole 2nd generation of cyber-punk authors.
