Was there ever a more apt title than this one? If so, I can't think of it. Mike Harrison's Wild Thing is the second novel about Calgary p.i. Eddie Dancer, and it's nothing if not wild. It has a newly discovered manuscript by Franz Anton Mesmer (written in old Italian), a serial killer whose method involves crushing his victims' heads, a best-selling writer on tour, paparazzi, underground tunnels, Newgate Prison records, and a strong woo-woo factor (reincarnation). While Dancer is based in Calgary, the novel's setting is England, so there's a bit of the fish-out-of-water appeal, too. And all of this in a novel not much longer than an old Gold Medal original. This, of course, is just the way I like it: stripped-down prose, a fast-moving story, and a likeable first-person narrator. Check it out.
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