The Alternative Detective
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
It's the twenty-first century and the ugliness of war no longer exists, except on a very personal level. Nowadays, people like Marcello Polletti, seller of Roman sunsets, and Caroline Meredith, lithe, beautiful, blond, and backed by corporate sponsors and the Roy Bell Dancers, hunt, chase, and kill one another for sport and for the entertainment of the masses—until something oddly like personal human feelings pops up to confuse the players and up the stakes as each of them seeks to kill a tenth victim and rise in the ranks of the hunters.
From the very beginning of his career, Robert Sheckley was recognized by fans, reviewers, and fellow authors as a master storyteller and the wittiest satirist working in the science fiction field. Open Road is proud to republish his acclaimed body of work, with nearly thirty volumes of full-length fiction and short story collections. Rediscover, or discover for the first time, a master of science fiction who, according to the New York Times, was "a precursor to Douglas Adams."
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.
