My favourite Thompson novel, it's a dark and surreal look into suburbia from an outsider. It features a fascinating, amoral, yet very witty and insightful anti-hero that is easy to empathise with, but the real suspense and terror comes from an enigmatic seemingly omnipotent crime lord named "The Man". The suspense is well played throughout, the twists are genuinely surprising and it's more than just fun entertainment, it seems to strip bare the human heart and really explore the human condition under the guise of a "dimestore novel"... Brilliant.