Eye Of The Cricket by
James Sallis
hbk out June 98
Published by No Exit Press
at £12
Lew Griffin is a man whose strange life has left him with so many layers of
experience that in cross-section, he'd look like a slice of the earth's
crust. Private eye, writer, teacher, lover, and repository of grief, memory
and alcohol, he's managed to see and do almost everything without ever
having to leave the confines of New Orleans. But now he's faced with the
strangest challenge of his life. A tramp turns up in the local hospital
with nothing but a copy of one of Griffin's books, claiming to be the
author himself, his claim bolstered by an impressive assemblage of detail.
The only living souls who could know this much about Griffin are the man
himself and his son David, who's been on the missing list for more years
than Griffin cares to remember. He's spent years looking for other people's
missing loved ones -- he's doing it still, in between teaching and falling
in love -- but now it looks as if the only answer to his questions lies in
tracking down his own son.
It's a search that takes him not only to the meanest of the mean streets of
the Crescent City but also into a living hell. Most private eyes take
risks; Lew Griffin goes straight to the heart of darkness and it takes us
to the last page before we can be sure he'll ever emerge.
This is a novel whose contents are as disturbing and intense as its weird
cover. It manages to be both heartrendingly tragic yet curiously uplifting.
No Exit Press are currently publishing some of the most intelligent,
entertaining and exciting American crime fiction around, both new and
classic. This memorable and exotic book adds lustre to a list that already
glows in the dark.
(
Val McDermid
- Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill)
Eye Of The Cricket by
James Sallis