The Neon Lights Are Veins

Set in Los Angeles, Knight’s dark first novel focuses on two lost souls, Alvi Drake and Rocco Felix, who are seeking the same missing woman, Gabby Gretsch, who once played in an all-female band. Drake, who used to be a skateboarding legend known as Ratboy Drake, now drifts through the seedy side of the city on pills and liquor with an assortment of misfits such as sex worker Vance “Mongo” Mongalez, who roomed with Gabby, and runaway Faye Green. Rocco is the nephew of Raymond Satin, who runs casitas where one can get anything, but what Rocco would prefer to be is a student at UCLA—a far cry from dumping bodies and transporting drugs for his uncle. In this sordid noir, young women who disappear tend to turn up dead or are never seen again. Knight’s slangy prose (“Still couldn’t believe this was his life now: a carnal underworld tucked in the ass of a meat market”) is a perfect fit for characters whose dreams die slowly or explosively. (Jan.)