Deviant Behavior
A Novel of Sex, Drugs, Fatherhood, and Crystal Skulls
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"[A] dark D.C. tale with . . . an addictive neo-noir sensibility" by the award-winning journalist and New York Times–bestselling author of Tattoos & Tequila (Publishers Weekly).
With a pretty wife, a new baby, and a job reporting for the Washington Herald, Jonathan Seede is the picture of urban respectability. But a secret freelance project is drawing him into places most people never dare to go. Just ten blocks from the White House, on the notorious Fourteenth Street strip, a war is raging over drugs, prostitution, and other deviant behaviors—and Seede is on the front lines.
When his family abruptly leaves him, Seede embarks on a journey into his own dark urges. Along the way, he encounters pimps and hustlers, an accidental hooker, an honest cop, a storefront prophet who deals marijuana, a beautiful teenage runaway, a crack-addicted music legend, an A-list gay activist, and a diminutive billionaire who is searching for the answers to life's greatest questions in a crystal skull.
"Mike Sager's keen, journalistic eye and unique voice transfer to fiction with highly entertaining results. Deviant Behavior is a street-level, symphonic portrait of an American city." —George Pelecanos, author of The Night Gardener
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sager blends a magnified slice of urban subculture in late 1980s-early '90s Washington, D.C., with a subplot about powerful mystical artifacts. Washington Herald reporter, reluctant new father, "urban pioneer" and druggie Jonathan Seede is working on a book that subverts the Just Say No movement. Things hit a snag when his main source, the Pope of Pot, a "do-gooder" dealer who only sells primo pot, gets framed by dirty cops for dealing coke. One of the pope's possessions a crystal skull rumored to have magical powers ends up in the hands of a runaway who finds shelter in Seede's house. Other characters, like pimp Jamal Alfred and Salem, one of Jamal's girls with a shady past, contribute to the sleazy milieu and provide entr e to the wealthy Bert Metcalfe, who has designs on the crystal skull. Though the supernatural elements are unfortunately muted, Sager studs his dark D.C. tale with sharp observations and an addictive neo-noir sensibility.
