Moist

Mark Haskell Smith

Summary

A Los Angeles slacker becomes apprentice to a crime lord in this “dark and mordantly funny” rampage through the gutters of La La Land (T. C. Boyle). What could cause Bob to give up his cushy job at a pathology lab where he can play Tetris and surf the Web whenever he wants? Why on earth would he walk out on his beautiful girlfriend, a professional masturbation coach? What could induce him to risk his life by masquerading as a kingpin in the Los Angeles Mexican mafia? An erotic tattoo—the Mona Lisa of erotic tattoos—painted on a severed arm, which lands in Bob’s lap one fateful morning. Bob has fallen for the woman in ink, but he’s not the only one who wants the beefy limb. There’s the telenovela-addicted mobster who lost it; the jefe who needs to keep it away from the police; a backstabbing, cannabis-loving Wharton grad; and a wine snob LAPD detective who knows the arm is the evidence he needs to bring down the entire Mexican mafia. And all the while Bob is holding onto it for dear life. As potent as a double-shot margarita, Moist “blend[s] fresh characters, snappy patter, sex, a mind bender of a plot, and a little more sex . . . [in] a killer cocktail of a first novel” (John Ridley). “Process Carl Hiaasen’s South Florida through an Elmore Leonard filter, then shake well and pour over Los Angeles . . . a terrifically engaging and wonderfully bizarre caper novel.” —Jeremiah Healy, Shamus Award–winning author “The hard-boiled Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy spun out in brighter-than-life Starburst colors.” —Los Angeles Times

Available since: 12/01/2007.

Print length: 320 pages.

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