Reminiscent of the widely popular Carl Hiaasen novels,Parlor City Paradise takes seedycharacters and even seedier situations and gives them a clever, often humorousand always entertaining twist. Skid Row has been on his own since the ageof fourteen. He gets by well enough, but thinks he'd like something more out oflife than an occasional toke, his dead end job and a rented room at the Y. Bullfrogcame from a very different upbringing. He had loving parents and all thebenefits of the upper middle class. Then, his world was turned tragicallyupside-down. He lost everything that had any importance to him and became adrifter, disillusioned and without any real direction. Skid Rowand Bullfrog cross paths, and a disastrous first meeting gradually developsinto an unlikely friendship. Together, theyhatch a perilous scheme that one of them believes could be the answer to alltheir problems. Instead, being homeless and unemployed is suddenly the least oftheir worries when they end up at odds with Ricky Fixx and Carl, a low-levelcrime boss and his heavy-handed henchman. Parlor City Paradise is set in Binghamton, New York, a once affluent area that fellon some seriously hard times and was recently listed among the top five mostdepressing places in America. It's theperfect backdrop for a suspense novel featuring a rich assortment of charactersoddly charming and distasteful, and a curious combination of despair andoptimism.