Gun, with Occasional Music

Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems-there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage.
Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse.
Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.

While shadowing the wife of an affluent urologist, a hapless private eye falls in love with her. When the doctor turns up dead, the P.I. finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of the Fickle Muse.

From the celebrated author of Motherless Brooklyn,
a wry, satiric parable of a hardboiled man out of time

Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems-not the least of which are the rabbit in his waiting room and the trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail.
Near-future Oakland is an ominous place where evolved animals function as members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. In this brave new world, Metcalf has been shadowing the wife of an affluent doctor,
perhaps falling a little in love with her at the same time. But when the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in the crossfire in a futuristic world that is both funny-and not so funny.

"Marvelous . . . Stylish, intelligent, darkly humorous, and highly readable entertainment."-SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

"Lethem has talent to burn."-THE VILLAGE VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT AUTHOR OF THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE

Jonathan Lethem is the author of six novels, including National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude. He lives in New York City.

Publishers Weekly

Lethem's first novel is a work of noir science fiction inhabited by animal gangsters and a gritty futuristic P.I. (Mar.)

Jonathan Lethem has a talent for bending literary genres. He has been entertaining readers since 1994's Gun, with Occasional Music, a debut novel that contained all the ingredients of his future career as a writer: science fiction, pulp detective noir, westerns, and award-winning coming-of-age stories.