author : Malcolm Pryce

Louie Knight, the only private eye in the seaside town of Aberystwyth, is approached by local notorious nightclub chanteuse Myfanwy Montez to track down Evans the Boot, a schoolboy cousin of hers, who has disappeared, along with several others. Investigations lead him to the shady doings of the local Druid-run Mafia, Mrs Evans the witch, the only real ghost train in Wales, and some consequences of the disastrous Welsh-Patagonian war of the 1960s.

This detective noir spoof, set in a surreal version of an innocent Welsh town, is marvellously inventive. The overall tone is a little wobbly in places, veering from laugh out loud comedy to somewhat grisly, but the steady revelation of weirder and weirder goings on is lovely. Not quite up to the inspired lunacy standards of Jasper Fforde, but certainly worth reading.