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BIBLIOGRAPHY

ISBN: 1901982270
Price: £6.99
Casing: Paperback
Format: B (198 x 129mm)
Extent: 224pp
Rights: UK & Commonwealth excl. Canada
Pub. Date: November 1998

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack O'Connell won the ($50,000) 1990 Mysterious Press Discovery Contest for the Best First Crime Novel for Box Nine. He is also the author of Word Made Flesh and Wireless both published by No Exit. He is a magazine editor and schlemiel and lives in Massachusetts.
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ABOUT THE BOOK

A stunningly original nightmare novel about the impact of a new synthetic drug - Lingo - on the depressed New England factory town of Quinsigamond, where it was secretly developed. Besides offering a potent high, Lingo also delivers a shot to the brain cells governing lingusitic comprehension and verbal skill. Until murderous rages and babbling insanity take over, this mind-expanding feature makes the drug dangerously seductive to the unusually literate cops, scientists and dope dealers competing to find its distribution source.

Written in the cranked up style of Lingo, Box Nine shows a noir vision of a city that has become a virtual war zone between warring multi-ethnic drug cartels. The narrative shifts from one head case to another but never loses sight of Det. Leonore Thomas, an undercover officer addicted to speed, rough sex, heavy metal and the feel of her .357 Magnum. A dark, disturbing book that speaks with a fine fury about the yearning for forbidden knowledge and the language to articulate the mysteries it unlocks.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'The most electrifying debut crime novel you are likely to read all year ' - GQ

'A surrealistic noir epic that's part David Lynch and part Brett Easton Ellis ' - Booklist