The Alternative Detective [Paperback]

Robert Sheckley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997

Unqualified to do anything else in an America he's spent most of his life avoiding, Hob Draconian, aging ex-hippie turned private investigator, sets up the Alternative Detective Agency. While Hob's wallowing in depression, his nephew sends him his first case: five sailboards have gone missing. Not the kind of case he'd hoped for, but better than nothing. But soon Hob's up to his arched eyebrows in real criminals with real guns.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his first mystery in decades, SF author Sheckley ( The Game of X ) offers a zany romp featuring Hob Draconian, a not-so-ex-hippie and proprietor of the Alternative Detective Agency in New Jersey. Hob has an amazing number of old bohemian pals, some of whom occasionally work for him while the rest seem intent on killing him for various indignities suffered during hazy drug-running days. Most of those days were spent on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza where Hob was happy and carefree before losing his first wife and foolishly marrying his second. Hob agrees to help his nephew trace an unpaid-for shipment of sailboards sent from the nephew's workshop to Ibiza. Next, a woman who calls herself Damascene asks him to find Alex Sinclair, another old friend from Ibiza days, who has since turned lawyer and Iran-Contra conspirator and is now missing in Paris. Every action of Hob's brings up the past, and while Sheckley's dialogue can be terminally wry, the narrative's playfulness is infectious and Hob is an undeniably interesting fellow to follow.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Hobart Draconian runs the Alternative Detective Agency out of Snuff's Landing, New Jersey, where he lives with his latest wife Mylar and her unfulfilled lover Sheldon, the IRS agent who's auditing Hob's books. If this sounds like Thomas Pynchon, wait till you hear about the case. First, Hob's cousin, sailboard builder Frankie Falcone, wants him to trace five sailboards that a company in Ibiza, Spain, never paid for; then, next day, foxy Damascene (n‚e Rachel Starr) hires him to jet with her to Paris to find her lover Alex Sinclair, Hob's old housemate from his own days in Ibiza (``like you attached Coney Island to Bug Sur and put the whole thing under Mexican rule''). The two cases are connected, of course, but you can't expect to figure out how when you're running around Paris with the likes of Tony Romagna, the shadow (maybe a cop) who's full of restaurant tips; or Arne, the helpful Danish mime; or EtiŠnne, the abductor who surrenders his gun to a cabbie's dog and then forgets the address he's supposed to take Hob to; or Gerard Clovis, the film director who hired Alex as an actor and then wants to hire Hob. Funky sf-fantasist Sheckley hasn't published a mystery novel (cf. The Game of X, 1965) for 20 years. It's great to see the grand old man back in grand old style. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: Forge (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312853815
• ISBN-13: 978-0312853815
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,797,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Pleasing and Diverting Tale, August 29, 2000

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Alternative Detective (Paperback)

Noted sci-fi author Sheckley revisits the mystery form in this pleasing PI story. Middle-aged ex-hippie Hob Dranconian has settled down in New Jersey after spending the last 20 years running around the world enjoying life and dealing drugs to the funseekers of the world. This book finds him trying to track down some stolen sailboards in Spain via his Ibiza office, and trying to locate a missing old friend in Paris. Sheckley sets off down these two paths with solid plotting, amusing characters, and a clear sense of making sure all is not as it seems. It's a nice quick read, I'll definitely be checking out the sequel: Soma Blues and prequel: Draconian New York.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He did not burn out all his brain cells after all, September 4, 2010

By 

Baslim the Beggar "Baslim" (Ventura County, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Alternative Detective (Paperback)

There was a time when Sheckley was one of the funniest science fiction writers around. But he experimented (to put it mildly) with drugs and his writing went downhill. When I went to get some books autographed in the late 70s, I thought he was still out of it. This is the first "new" Sheckley (it was first published in 1993) that I have read in decades.

The book has a very light, very fast moving wit to it, kind of like some of the movies from the 1930s, but not so corny. In fact, it is also a nice little travelogue of places real and unreal in Paris and elsewhere. I like the way the detective agency works, but it requires someone with a really good social network, and a lot of trust. Plus an interest in making money, without being too greedy.

Hob Draconian is as mentioned by another reviewer, a "soft boiled detective". He doesn't carry weapons, wants no part of violence, but does possess tenacity. He is also a keen judge of character. So when he is taken at gunpoint by an ill at ease gunsel, he is not too worried.

Oh, and another thing. There is a lot of entanglement of persons and events. Everything is important to some degree, even if it seems a weird tangent. It all gets tied up neatly at the end. So Sheckley really came back from Pepperland, or wherever he was. I am looking forward to the other two books.

(btw, another reviewer had it wrong. This is the first book in the series, followed by Soma, and then Draconian New York.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Alternative Detective by Robert Sheckley, October 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Alternative Detective (Paperback)

This is the second book in Sheckley's Hob Draconian series. It features a hilarious scene in a French taxi with a French poodle who is smarter than one of the passengers! Sheckley's series is witty, urbane, and filled with the kind of small touches only an experienced writer can deliver. If you are looking for "something different" in the mystery category, you won't go wrong with this!