Jack Meter is a private investigator, or rather was – until the death of his wife, in an explosion in her lab, caused him to undergo a complete breakdown, and be committed to a mental institution. His life since release has not been the greatest, he has spent the time totally uncaring about his own medial health and determined to drink and smoke himself to death.

So his first reaction to being abducted by aliens and his body repaired of its damage is one of immense annoyance. He was looking forward to his death and the aliens took that away from him.

The Thrittene (the aliens who abducted him) need his help. Their reality is collapsing due to the actions of someone from Earth, who has been visiting various worlds and stealing items for an unknown purpose.

And as they are unable to leave their world, they need Meter to investigate this and prevent their doom. Only they are not the most rusting of races and are not telling Jack everything – for instance what the link is between the events that are unfolding and the work and reason for the death of Jack's scientist wife.

And to help him with his investigation they have given him (or should I say implanted him with) a device that will allow him to move between the various worlds to track down the person who is responsible, and reverse the damage caused by his activities.

If you have ever read any noir novels this will feel familiar in several ways. The characters are not perfect hero types, in a number of ways they are not all that likeable, and bad things can happen to good people, and given how evil the book's villain is, bad things are going to happen.

The action is punchy with no spare flesh to the prose, and exactly as a first person narrative should be. When you are relating events in your head adding the detail of the colour and pattern design of the plant pots doesn't happen.

And this first person style is absolutely perfect to the noir genre. It's reminiscent of the Philip Marlowe style stories and wonderfully refreshing.

Synopsis
Every instinct Jack Meter has tells him his clients, the Thrittene, are hiding something. So when his dead girlfriend pops up in every world he visits, Jack knows the case was personal from the outset. Now he must avenge her death and save the universe from utter destruction.