Putting Out

Putting Out

Putting Out

Who is going to win the current mayoral race?  The best-dressed candidate, of course.  Who else ?  For this is New York, where rivalry centres on sartorial elegance rather than policies, where politics has become primarily a matter of style – like all the important things in life: sport, television, sex.  Even murder.

Amid the media chic of the mayoral election, an outbreak of terrorism has hit the couture industry.  While fashion dictators Rocco and Tina battle for the hearts and minds of the city voters, Lieutenant Maxwell Faraday, detective second grade of the 19th Precinct, Professor of Semiotics, is called in to investigate.  Reluctant to carry a gun on the grounds that it will ruin the line of his suit, he knows that the best means of defence, of trapping prey, – including a suitable mate – is an effective style statement.  Something New Yorkers have always known.

In Neil Ferguson’s satire on the style world, Max dances a deadly tango across the floors of New York’s clubs and fashion houses in pursuit of – and pursued by – that most ruthless of style-makers, a killer.  A killer who understands the politics of a well-cut evening suit.

Reviews

A spectacular first novel – an Englishman beats Tom Wolfe  at his own game – with a rounded  and poisonous flavour utterly its own.  David Hughes, Mail On Sunday

Putting Out, a poised and poignant novel quite brilliantly told’.  John Clute, Interzone

A wry, tongue-in-cheek novel, witty and self-knowing, that pampers the readers ego and manages to provide a passable PI plot to boot.   Time Out

Putting Out grabs the attention, the first post-modern semiotic fable, cleverly put together with built-in unassailable defences. I must say I enjoyed it, not least for the audacious story-line.   The Guardian

Putting Out was another very accomplished first novel.  John Nicholson, Christmas Books, The Times

Meutre Apparent:   Albin Michel (France): Le ton de ce roman policer est incroyablement  léger, impertinent, malicieux.  Neil Ferguson a beau être anglais.  Il se balade aisément dans le New York de la mode.  Ou plutôt c’est son héros, un inspecteur sémiologue qui va tenter déjouer les russes, le pièges, le camouflage en enquiêtent sur l’assassinat d’une speakerine de télévision au moment où elle présentait un déflilé de mode.  Bravo!  LIT TOUT  (Paris)