Perhaps you are aware of the fact that there is an oddly popular trivia game floating around that a group of clever (and likely bored) college...
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Like Ben Elton?s Dead Famous (2001), this offbeat mystery features a Big Brother?like reality TV show, a murder, and a cantankerous detective, Alban Bane, who must overcome his revulsion for everything and everyone connected with the show if he is to find out whodunit. There?s also a touch of the hit TV series House here, too: like the small-screen physician, the cranky, pain-pill-popping Bane adds a delightfully sarcastic tone to the action. But, for all of that, the novel somehow manages to avoid feeling derivative. Armstrong?s abundant enthusiasm for his material, combined with the semi-satirical plotline, compel us to keep reading, and his prose style keeps us chuckling. The sleuth who disdains the world in which he finds himself is an idea as old as Raymond Chandler, but Armstrong injects the trope with new vigor. This is a series to watch from a new publisher to watch. ?David Pitt, Booklist Magazine
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The Game by Derek Armstrong
DePolo, August 1, 2007
Like Ben Elton?s Dead Famous (2001), this offbeat mystery features a Big Brother?like reality TV show, a murder, and a cantankerous detective, Alban Bane, who must overcome his revulsion for everything and everyone connected with the show if he is to find out whodunit. There?s also a touch of the hit TV series House here, too: like the small-screen physician, the cranky, pain-pill-popping Bane adds a delightfully sarcastic tone to the action. But, for all of that, the novel somehow manages to avoid feeling derivative. Armstrong?s abundant enthusiasm for his material, combined with the semi-satirical plotline, compel us to keep reading, and his prose style keeps us chuckling. The sleuth who disdains the world in which he finds himself is an idea as old as Raymond Chandler, but Armstrong injects the trope with new vigor. This is a series to watch from a new publisher to watch. ?David Pitt, Booklist Magazine(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)