ISBN 978-1-7355727-2-7 (5” x 7”, 136 pp, paperback) | Novel
With cover and interior illustrations by Jordan Gaza
OUT NOW

Detectives Michael and Daniel must try to solve a murder on planet Earth.

The victim may or may not be named Jane from Yesterday. And the Man of One Thousand Years, cult leader of the Architects of Q’Noor, may or may not be responsible. As Michael and Daniel hurl themselves inexorably toward a final confrontation with the Man of One Thousand Years through a dreamlike landscape of exploding cacti, cultists, centaurs, spells, river gorgons, lobster enthusiasts, and undulating portals activated by prayer, they collide with a succession of randos and adversaries—Vampyre King, Man with Face Like Fire, Qyumoo’un, Eater of Dreams, Excalibur, Prince Al-Wajeed, and dozens more—sparing few in their frenzied quest for the truth.

“A fever of invention and imagination; I’m bewitched. Kleine and Hoy take the dense and conceptually complex and bring it to human scale with the ergonomic, precise poetics of a deconstructed and swirling detective novel. Peculiar and beautiful.”

—BRONTEZ PURNELL, author of 100 Boyfriends

“This is what might happen if Richard Brautigan and Derek McCormack were co-hired to rewrite the movie Collateral to make it a buddy film in which reality is constantly in the process of collapsing. Weird and wonderful and playful, this is the detective novel on acid.”

—BRIAN EVENSON, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World

”This book is a quest, a doorway, a surrealist play—I don’t know what the hell to call it, which is why I can’t recommend it enough. You’ve never read anything else that’s fun like this is fun.”

—AMBER SPARKS, author of And I Do Not Forgive You

Excerpt:

They’re driving to Jake’s house.

Daniel says, remember, Jake is Vampyre King.

Michael says, and you know the black magicks; remember that too.

They get to the house.

Jake isn’t very cooperative.

Michael ties Jake against a post.

Daniel slaps Jake across the face with the back of his hand.

Michael says, I know the end means nothing to you, Jake.

Jake says, I am the now, the tomorrow and the yesterday.

Michael shines a flashlight and Jake screams.

Michael says, Jake, this flashlight is designed to hurt you.

Daniel slaps Jake.

Michael says, tell me, Jake, do you still seek the edge of the Earth.

Jake says, the days of yesterday are all numbered in sum.

Michael says, I am right now feeling a feeling of familiarity in what I would say is a totally alien landscape.

Daniel slaps Jake across the face.

Jake spits blood and says, the cave is empty. The Man of One Thousand Years, he is no longer of this Earth.

Daniel clips Jake in the mouth and lifts the flashlight from Michael and shines it at Jake’s skull.

Jake yells and screams.

Michael smokes a cigarette and writes on a piece of paper, we’ve got all night baby, and Daniel here ain’t afraid of the darkness, and shows it to Jake.

Michael blows smoke out of his mouth and nostrils.

Jake screams.

Daniel laughs and mock screams.

Mike Kleine is the author of the computer-generated novel Lonely Men Club, as well as Kanley Stubrick, Arafat Mountain, Mastodon Farm, and other texts. He grew up in West Africa and graduated from Grinnell College with a B.A. in French literature. He currently lives somewhere in the Midwest.

Dan Hoy is the author of The Deathbed Editions (Octopus Books, 2016) and several poetry chapbooks, including The Terraformers (Third Man Books, 2017). He was a contributor to the collective blog Montevidayo, and was co-founder of the literary arts journal Soft Targets. He lives in Nashville.