First published 1988
Marîd Audran walks the streets of the Budayeen, an Arabic quarter where independence costs blood and survival demands compromise. He has kept his mind free from surgical implants while others plug in personality cartridges like drugs. Now a killer stalks the district, switching between stolen identities that range from James Bond to a butcher called Khan. The ancient crime boss who rules the Budayeen makes Marîd an offer backed by death threats. Hunt down this murderer or face the consequences. But catching someone who can become any psychopath in history requires Marîd to surrender the very thing he has fought to protect. He must accept brain implants that will change him forever. The surgery will give him the tools to match his quarry, but it may cost him his soul. In this rotting future world of easy pleasures and cheaper death, Marîd discovers that staying human requires becoming something else.
Genres: science-fiction, mystery, crime, cyberpunk
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: detective, fish-out-of-water, identity-crisis
Setting: Budayeen
Period: future
276 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Bantam Spectra
Content warnings: violence