From Publishers Weekly
In his first mystery in decades, SF author Sheckley ( The Game of X ) offers a zany romp featuring Hob Draconian, a not-so-ex-hippie and proprietor of the Alternative Detective Agency in New Jersey. Hob has an amazing number of old bohemian pals, some of whom occasionally work for him while the rest seem intent on killing him for various indignities suffered during hazy drug-running days. Most of those days were spent on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza where Hob was happy and carefree before losing his first wife and foolishly marrying his second. Hob agrees to help his nephew trace an unpaid-for shipment of sailboards sent from the nephew's workshop to Ibiza. Next, a woman who calls herself Damascene asks him to find Alex Sinclair, another old friend from Ibiza days, who has since turned lawyer and Iran-Contra conspirator and is now missing in Paris. Every action of Hob's brings up the past, and while Sheckley's dialogue can be terminally wry, the narrative's playfulness is infectious and Hob is an undeniably interesting fellow to follow.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Hobart Draconian runs the Alternative Detective Agency out of Snuff's Landing, New Jersey, where he lives with his latest wife Mylar and her unfulfilled lover Sheldon, the IRS agent who's auditing Hob's books. If this sounds like Thomas Pynchon, wait till you hear about the case. First, Hob's cousin, sailboard builder Frankie Falcone, wants him to trace five sailboards that a company in Ibiza, Spain, never paid for; then, next day, foxy Damascene (n‚e Rachel Starr) hires him to jet with her to Paris to find her lover Alex Sinclair, Hob's old housemate from his own days in Ibiza (``like you attached Coney Island to Bug Sur and put the whole thing under Mexican rule''). The two cases are connected, of course, but you can't expect to figure out how when you're running around Paris with the likes of Tony Romagna, the shadow (maybe a cop) who's full of restaurant tips; or Arne, the helpful Danish mime; or EtiŠnne, the abductor who surrenders his gun to a cabbie's dog and then forgets the address he's supposed to take Hob to; or Gerard Clovis, the film director who hired Alex as an actor and then wants to hire Hob. Funky sf-fantasist Sheckley hasn't published a mystery novel (cf. The Game of X, 1965) for 20 years. It's great to see the grand old man back in grand old style. --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
