One of Us - Tapa dura

Praise for Michael Marshall Smith:

‘Some books stretch the imagination; this one mugs it’
DAVID BADDIEL on Spares

‘A storytelling skill that can only be described as pure genius’
VENUE

‘Comic, cruel, twisted and surreal’
EMPIRE

‘Tense exciting and very, very funny... He’s worth every penny’
TIME OUT

‘Smith is a genuine talent to follow’
PUBLISHING NEWS

‘Marks him out as a name to watch’
THE TIMES

Film rights sold to Warner Bros for $1.5 million. A mesmerising thriller from the author of Spares. Smith’s major breakout novel.

Hap Thompson has finally found something he can do better than anyone else. And it’s legal. Almost. Hap’s a REMtemp, working on contract during the night hours, having people’s dreams for them. Not the nightmares – they don’t happen often enough – but the anxiety dreams: the dull, boring ones which leave middle management too tired to excel in the vicious corporate world of the next century. For the first time in his life, Hap’s making big money – and that should have been enough.

But then Hap is made an offer he can’t refuse: proxying memories instead of dreams. This is not almost illegal – this is illegal in bold with flashing lights. The last thing the cops want are criminals who can pass lie detector tests and Hap knows it, but he’s relying on the promise that he won’t have to carry anything that relates to a criminal offence. Big mistake. Before he knows what’s happening, Hap is locked in a vicious nightmare that threatens to tear his mind and his life apart...

And, as in all Michael Marshall Smith novels, that is just the start.