The Crime Studio
The gleeful noir mayhem continues in slacker satirist Steve Aylett's collectionThe Crime Studio(actually his first book, but released in America afterSlaughtermatic,Toxicology, andAtom).  The writing inThe Crime Studiois slightly less fevered than we're used to from Aylett, and the hyper-Chandlerian metaphors aren't pushed so far that they're humorous for the wrong reason; but the stories are just as punk-rock fast and short (few of the 27 interrelated stories are longer than five pages, and some are shorter).The Crime Studiois packaged as science fiction, but little in the book fits that genre, unless the label refers to the fantastically cartoony ultraviolence or the surreal improbability of Aylett's imaginary city.--Cynthia Ward--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.