Tripping the Night Fantastic - Andrew Chapman

Tripping the Night Fantastic is essentially a 'Whodunit', but one that is far from the traditional and expected set up. There is a murder, there is a sleuth, and there is a solution. There is also an awful lot of drug/alcohol related lunacy. Charlie Deavon is a writer who meets the sexually troublesome Amelia Heart in a pub (she's a fan of his) and she soon winds up dead. There are a number of suspects, all friends, and Charlie and they try to solve the case together. The three men, what with the stress of it all, turn to a new drug called Merlin which allows them to control and share hallucinations. From then on they trip and hallucinate their way through to the story's conclusion. Charlie and co like to drink. Only, they don't so much "go for a drink" as "go for a splash." They wallow in it. Like mad fish. It really is no way to go about solving crimes.