Crooked Little Vein

Mix a conspiracy surrounding the United States Presidents with a down on his luck shit-magnet of a private eye who always stumbles into the absurd and you have Warren Ellis' first true novel, Crooked Little Vein.

I've been a fan of Mr. Ellis for years, reading his comic books like Global Frequency, Fell, Storm Watch, The Authority, and a host of others. In fact, Warren Ellis has the distinction of having more comics collected into mass market trade paperbacks than any other writer in modern history.

More often than not, the concepts and characters he brings forth spring from real life science fact, twisted to make amazing leaps into storytelling. But back to the novel at hand...

Crooked Little Vein reads like National Treasure on Crack. A private eye, down on his luck, is given an ungodly sum of money to track down a book that contains the secret amendments to the constitution written on the skin of a dead alien. It only gets more bizarre from there as he travels across country dealing with twisted and freakish people living in America's underbelly.

The whole thing is a fast and fun read. My only complaint about it seems to be that this could just as easily be a six issue mini-series in comic book form as it could a novel. That's not a bad thing, I was just expecting something a little more. I supposed the graphic nature of some of the things our hero runs into during his adventure are better left unseen, and for that, I'm eternally grateful to Mr. Ellis.

Crooked Little Vein. Go read it if you like really weird stuff disguised as a private eye novel.

Till next time...