Fortune's Bastard

August 9, 2004
A much-loathed London tabloid editor and philandering father of one gets his comeuppance in British author Chalmers's (Who's Who in Hell
) devilishly indulgent, surrealistic second novel. Arrogant Edward Miller has employees who decorate his back with airmail stickers and a wife who announces her own infidelity and dumps him at their anniversary dinner. Soothing his bruised ego at a West End club, Edward is offered cocaine, and indulges in a night wild enough to get his photograph plastered in the newspapers the following day; news that his house has burned down comes as the last straw. He shaves his head and runs off to teach English in Barcelona, but is forced to flee again when he's spotted—his wife, Elizabeth, wants to finalize a divorce settlement and there's a warrant for his arrest on arson charges—moving on to Plant City, Fla., a town populated with stock carnival freaks and governed by sadistic, legless boss Vincent ("Half-Man") Makin, who holds him hostage at a trailer park. With inside help, Edward plots Vincent's murder just as his past life resurfaces in a surprise showdown. It's the circus freaks who prove to be the most fun (and who teach Edward some much-needed lessons), though this wacky ride is piloted by a strong central character witty and captivating enough to make for plenty of sinfully rich reading. Agent, Melanie Jackson.

September 15, 2004
It wouldn't seem that things could get any worse for Edward Miller, a rich and powerful tabloid newspaper editor, whose life begins to spiral out of control when an early morning quickie with his personal assistant in a supply closet becomes the talk of the town. His bad day continues when his wife informs him at their tenth anniversary dinner that she's leaving him for their neighbor and ends in a self-destructive rampage caught on film by a rival tabloid. Miller is soon on the lam from his murderous father-in-law and the authorities after he vandalizes his neighbor's Mercedes and accidentally burns down his own house. He first flees to Barcelona, where he lands a job teaching English for minimum wage at a dodgy language school, before being caught in a Florida backwater that is a refuge for every variety of human oddity. As the narrative has few pauses and no chapter breaks, the reader will careen along on an electrifying and hilarious ride. Highly recommended. Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
A spontaneous seduction prompts a surreal chain of events in this raucous new novel from the author of " Who's Who in Hell" (2002). When London tabloid editor Edward Miller and a nubile temporary secretary emerge from the office supply cabinet with a surfeit of airmail stamps plastered to their backs, the news soon reaches Miller's fetching but frosty wife, Elizabeth. The guilt-ridden newsman numbs himself with several nosefuls of cocaine at a popular London media hangout, a career-leveling move given his paper's strict antidrug stance. With his life's losses piling up (suspiciously, his house has burned to the ground), Miller decides it's time to get out of London. After a teaching gig in Barcelona goes bust, he finds himself in a Florida town of carnies and circus freaks run by a legless sadist known as Half Man. Amidst a melange of misfits, Miller may have finally found a place to belong. A notch more debauched than the novels of fellow Brit Nick Hornby, this is a wry, writhing tale about the forces that shape our fate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)