What do Ernest Hemingway, Oscar Wilde, John Kennedy Toole, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe and many others have in common?

Their Muse.

Stinky, a defrocked minor god, wordsmith and connoisseur of Brandy Alexanders has helped many to achieve fame.

Roland (would-be writer and bar owner), Hussey (trainee vooderine), Dee Dee (sushi chef, Halifax Hottie and Tourette's tart), Cutter (handsome and a genuine re re), Bella Donna (blind, vengeful and wannabee voodun) and the leaders of the legal, insurance, pharmaceutical and medical professions (aka The Four Horsemen: War, Famine, Pestilence and Death) are about to encounter Stinky.

A greyhound with a multiple personality, an ex-mafia Fugu Lounge barfly, a bull rider who is terrified of clowns and a new remedy for phobias and more are 'conjured' in this absorbing, articulate, intelligent, feisty and witty novel.

If you enjoy Carl Hiaasen, Jasper Fforde, James Clarke, P.J. O'Rourke, Tome Sharpe, Tony Parsons and Tom Robbins, set aside some time for V. Mark Covington.