A combination of noir-ish crime thriller, savage social critique and laugh-out-loud romp, the second Wylie ‘Coyote’ Melville novel is like a mash-up of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen and a smidgeon of Quentin Tarantino.
Florida natives, Melville and professional poker player and magician, Bay Lettique, have wound up in Las Vegas after escaping the events of 2013’s No Regrets, Coyote. While supping cocktails in one of Sin City’s famous hotels, they watch a woman falling 30 storeys to her death. Horror-stricken, Wylie tries to find out more about the apparent suicide but the answers he gets scream cover-up and propel him to dig deeper, setting in motion a series of misadventures involving hard men, hard drinking and a plot so hard-boiled it could be sponsored by the Irish Egg Association.
Throughout, Dufresne waxes fast and furious at all manner of social ills, from gun control to the Tuam Mother & Baby Home.