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The Alternative Detective
by Robert Sheckley
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Forge (1997-12)
ISBN: 0312853815
EAN: 9780312853815
Dewey Decimal #: 813.54
Binding/Media: Paperback - 255 pages
SKU: 00-6J2I-0FGZ
Condition: As New
Comments: Appears to be unread. Spine is uncreased, binding is tight. No markings.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Unqualified to do anything else in an America he's spent most of his life avoiding, Hob Draconian, aging ex-hippie turned private investigator, sets up the Alternative Detective Agency. While Hob's wallowing in depression, his nephew sends him his first case: five sailboards have gone missing. Not the kind of case he'd hoped for, but better than nothing. But soon Hob's up to his arched eyebrows in real criminals with real guns.
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Customer Reviews
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He did not burn out all his brain cells after all
Rating  (5)
Date: 2010-09-04
There was a time when Sheckley was one of the funniest science fiction writers around. But he experimented (to put it mildly) with drugs and his writing went downhill. When I went to get some books autographed in the late 70s, I thought he was still out of it. This is the first "new" Sheckley (it was first published in 1993) that I have read in decades.
The book has a very light, very fast moving wit to it, kind of like some of the movies from the 1930s, but not so corny. In fact, it is also a nice little travelogue of places real and unreal in Paris and elsewhere. I like the way the detective agency works, but it requires someone with a really good social network, and a lot of trust. Plus an interest in making money, without being too greedy.
Hob Draconian is as mentioned by another reviewer, a "soft boiled detective". He doesn't carry weapons, wants no part of violence, but does possess tenacity. He is also a keen judge of character. So when he is taken at gunpoint by an ill at ease gunsel, he is not too worried.
Oh, and another thing. There is a lot of entanglement of persons and events. Everything is important to some degree, even if it seems a weird tangent. It all gets tied up neatly at the end. So Sheckley really came back from Pepperland, or wherever he was. I am looking forward to the other two books.
(btw, another reviewer had it wrong. This is the first book in the series, followed by Soma, and then Draconian New York.)
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A Pleasing and Diverting Tale
Rating  (4)
Date: 2000-08-30
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Noted sci-fi author Sheckley revisits the mystery form in this pleasing PI story. Middle-aged ex-hippie Hob Dranconian has settled down in New Jersey after spending the last 20 years running around the world enjoying life and dealing drugs to the funseekers of the world. This book finds him trying to track down some stolen sailboards in Spain via his Ibiza office, and trying to locate a missing old friend in Paris. Sheckley sets off down these two paths with solid plotting, amusing characters, and a clear sense of making sure all is not as it seems. It's a nice quick read, I'll definitely be checking out the sequel: Soma Blues and prequel: Draconian New York.
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The Alternative Detective by Robert Sheckley
Rating (4)
Date: 1998-10-17
This is the second book in Sheckley's Hob Draconian series. It features a hilarious scene in a French taxi with a French poodle who is smarter than one of the passengers! Sheckley's series is witty, urbane, and filled with the kind of small touches only an experienced writer can deliver. If you are looking for "something different" in the mystery category, you won't go wrong with this!
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