Sunday, January 24, 2010

No Sleep Till Wonderland -- Paul Tremblay

It's been about a year since I commented on Tremblay's first novel about Mark Genevich, Narcoleptic Detective. Genevich is still narcoleptic (and occasionally cataleptic) in this sequel. He's in therapy, but he's not entirely cooperative, and he's on another case. This one starts with a woman whom he's supposed to follow, but apparently he follows the wrong person, and that causes some real problems for his client, not to mention Genevich himself.

Things don't get any better when a guy named Gus befriends Genevich and takes him out for a drink. Or two. Two days later, Genevich is recovering from his bender gets involved in what appears to be a case of arson. Yes, of course the two are connected. After that, things get very complicated, and not just because Genevich keeps drifting off, something that prevents him from knowing exactly what's going on a lot of the time. Does get to Wonderland, though, and that's when he begins to wrap things up, but not before some final revelations, one of which has nothing to do with the cases but which provides and excellent noir twist.

There's no detective out there like Mark Genevich, and if you're looking for something different and darkly funny, you should check out Tremblay's books ASAP.