A more sci-fi than fantasy noir book that reminded me a lot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Everyone has karma cards controlled by a central institution and our main man is a P.I on the outs. More like a tolerant instrument when people need much more common blunt tools, like bruisers. When he’s hired to look into a death that’s been case closed, he spirals down a rabbit hole of uplifted animals, femme fatales, drugs with names like forgetall, that keep the rats—like him—in their cages.

It’s undeniably very odd. Another touchstone might be something from Jeff Noon’s Vurt. People subsist off their allowance of drugs that take away the pain of living in (futuristic) modernity. It’s a wild world. But it’s also very much grounded in noir tropes, presentation, and “payoff”. Always enjoyable, if you’re into that kind of thing, which I am.