Product Description

In the not too distant future the European Union enacts its most far reaching human rights legislation ever. The incompetent have been persecuted for too long. After all, it's not their fault they can't do it right, is it? So it is made illegal to sack or otherwise discriminate against anyone for being incompetent. Bad is the new good. And now a murder has been committed and our possibly incompetent detective must find out who the murderer is. As long as he can find directions to get him through the mean streets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #454055 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

DAILY MIRROR
'Crime Fantasy Fawlty Towers-style'

Review
'Crime Fantasy Fawlty Towers-style' (DAILY MIRROR )

'A revolutionary black comedy... he is spookily similar to that other science ficiton writer... Douglas Adams' (Paul Pickering THE DAILY EXPRESS )

'It's a tequila-sniffing, lemon-in-the-eye kind of affair - all wrong, but so right' (MAXIM )

'Who needs Red Dwarf? Rob Grant doesn't any more...' (SFX )

'A surreal, Monty Python-esque detective novel peppered with laugh-out-loud gags and elaborately conceived, vastly silly set-pieces' (DREAMWATCH )

'The jokes comes thick and fast' (Scotland on Sunday )

'Satire abounds in this consistently amusing comedy of errors' (Starburst )

MAXIM
'It's a tequila-sniffing, lemon-in-the-eye kind of affair - all wrong, but so right'

Customer Reviews

Good book
Now this is Grant approaching top form, I was a bit dubious about his recent offerings after the average 'Colony', but this book is much better. Faster paced with plenty of laughs, although is a bit cliched in places.

Overall though, a good read.

Ignorance is bliss - Incompetence is better.
Rob Grant is one of the best comedy writers I have seen, better than Ben Elton in my opinion. His style and humour are brilliant and he would have had me rolling about on the floor in hysterical laughter if it wasn't for all the dog hair.

The book is based on Europe in the not distant enough future, Europe is now known as the United States of Europe and incompetence is a way of life. Political correctness has gone mad and discrimination is not allowed no matter what a persons sex, age, race or incompetence. In fact the worse you do the quicker you will climb the ever so slippery ladder of sucess. This is a bit of a problem for Harry Salt, you see he is actually good at his job - too good! Harry Salt (just one of his many identities but the one he goes by mostly in the book) is an agent working for an establishment mearly known as The Agency. He's abit like a private detective but with a bigger expense account, more authority and the ability to dispose of anyone in his way - okay so not very much like a private detective but he does solve crimes, and a hell of a lot better than the police.

The plot is predictable and the solution even more so, but it is not that that makes the book a worthwile read. It is the journey there and the characters Harry meets along the way that will have you in stitches within minutes.

utterly compelling
not normaly a reader (i spend far too much time in front of this bloody PC) but an avid RD fan from the 1st showing of the 1st episode all those years back, & an even bigger fan of the books, i bought this to take on holiday with the hope it would give me something to do for days of sitting next to my girlfriend fixated on aiding the onset of skin cancer. I could not have been more wrong. We got to our holiday appartment (after 19 hours overall travel) & before i could even suggest going food shopping the girlfriend had already stripped off & was smothering sun tan lotion on while moaning at me for not doing the same. I agreed to go & sit with her but in the shade as i couldn't be bothered with sun at the time. got started reading this not knowing what to expect & within minutes i was hooked & hours passed in an instant. My girlfriend was fully annoyed when i continued reading & laughing every minute i could until by the end of the 2nd day i'd finished it & actualy felt sad. I could have kept reading about Harry & the hillarious laws in the EU of the future (or literal interpritation of current laws) for months.
I can not stress how good a book this is.

Buy it, Read it, love it!