Mount Royal

Keeping detailed tabs on a motley crew of junkies and bisexual prostitutes with names like Hennessy, Warlock, and Slim in late ’80s Montreal, Papademos (The Hook of It) provides some bulk-rate debauchery and kink, without much of a story line. Johnny lucks out when fellow user Tony flubs the local heroin distribution and “The Man” asks Johnny to take over retail operations. Johnny’s refusal to cut his product makes him one of the most popular attractions along Montreal’s shadowy strip of dive bars and after-hours clubs. Taking full advantage of his new status and freed from the obligation of turning tricks to support his habit, Johnny embraces debauchery with gorgeous girls and guys alike, while spying on a sex ring of local politicos with Aunt Byron, a conspiracy-obsessed transvestite. While the author manages some seriously sexy, unadulterated descriptions revolving around Johnny’s escapades, à la Henry Miller, all the sex and the drugs soon become redundant, causing the characters, like their couplings, to meld together indistinguishably. (June 1)