First published 2009
Chase Insteadman drifts through Manhattan's social circuit, sustained by royalties from his childhood role on the sitcom Martyr & Pesty. His fiancée Janice Trumbull remains stranded on the International Space Station, surrounded by orbital mines, sending him passionate letters that the tabloids devour. Chase floats between Upper East Side dinner parties until he meets Perkus Tooth, a wall-eyed pop culture critic who smokes premium marijuana and spins elaborate conspiracy theories. Perkus pulls Chase into a different version of Manhattan, one where reality bends and nothing appears as it seems. They team up with Oona Laszlo, a bitter ghostwriter, and Richard Abneg, a former activist turned political operative for the billionaire mayor. Together they chase mysteries that promise to reveal actual truth in a city where money corrupts everything. Chase must decide whether to stay comfortable in his delusions or face whatever lies beneath Manhattan's glittering surface.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Manhattan, International Space Station
Period: 21st-century
467 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: drug-use