'"Here's one you won't get – a paradox. 'A' states that everything 'B' says is a lie. 'B' states that everything 'A' says is true." ... "Easy. A and B are lying and mistaken, both and simultaneously. Happens all the time."'

About to quit the failed experiment of civilisation, fake detective Taffy Atom is detained by one last case – a boy with a bomb in his mind. But what's the trigger?

Against a backdrop of buildings the colour of dried blood and a formaldehyde sky above streets filled with cars on their side billowing with smoke, Atom is pursued by cops, mobsters, mercenaries and a mechanical swan. He carries the bomb and trigger through Beerlight City, the single holdout of creative mischief in a world overtaken by the trend-led Fadlands.

By the relentless principles of gun karma Aylett's final Beerlight book lands you in the Delayed Reaction Bar and fixes you a glass of antifreeze with everything in it. Listen to your heart. It will not stop slowly.