Like a Hole in the Head

Part mystery, part hijinks, this first novel by Banbury (author of the play How Alex Looks When She's Hurt) takes the reader on an outrageous romp through a tough, gritty and eccentric criminal world. The antics begin when Jill, a sharp-tongued college grad working at The Bitter Muse bookstore in L.A., buys a first edition of Jack London's The Cruise of the Snark from a dwarf. She rapidly sells the book to a rare-books dealer for a tidy profit--only to discover that it wasn't the dwarf's to sell. When an oversized goon (whose moniker is ""Joke Man"") tells her she must find the book or suffer the consequences, Jill sets off on a wild goose chase through Hollywood Hills and Las Vegas, pursued by hired thugs, booksellers, a film mogul and an assortment of underworld figures who variously seduce, torture and cheat her--even, at one point, coerce her to act as a movie extra. Jill endangers the life of her one close friend before she is able to retrieve the book and learn the reason why so many are in hot pursuit, all the while musing over the lethargy she has felt since her mother's death several years ago. Although the wit and wisecracks of Banbury's hard-boiled heroine make this a lively read, the plot is not as neatly conceived as it needs to be, and the book comes to a rather limp close. Nevertheless, fans of the neo-noir will appreciate this wry, outlandish debut. (Feb.)