The Only Criminal — Tim Lucas

Once upon a time, in a world otherwise much like our own, there is only one source of evil, torment and crime in the entire world. He is known as The Only Criminal. By extension, he is also the only source of interesting information in print and tele visual news. All movies, all TV shows, are made about him. He is also responsible for all the recorded music in the world, brought into being under the influence of illegal drugs.The Only Criminal is also the only source of fascination for a brilliant young psychologist, Dr. Paul Vaguely – a man driven by his obsession with this one subject, which fills him with fear and fuels his boundless curiosity and imagination. The good Dr. Vaguely is developing a new branch of psychiatric care,specializing in the treatment of patients whose lives were touched by the peril and plunder of The Only Criminal, but his plans are upset by two things: the discovery of the only known survivor of an Only Criminal attack to have actually seen him and lived; and The Only Criminal's most fiendish coup of all, which steers the world at large toward a collective nervous breakdown.Decades in preparation, The Only Criminal is many things: a Kafkaesque comic book on the theme of Original Sin; a never-more-relevant love story between two isolated characters fearful of risking human contact; even a fanciful alternative history of how our world may have ended up in such a catastrophic mess.Dark, humorous, erotic and charged with danger, The Only Criminal may be its author's definitive journey into the depths of dark obsession. ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE ONLY CRIMINAL:A fable for our time and for all times. Mysterious, witty, slyly comical and cumulatively disturbing, it explores its theme with a wealth of eloquence and invention, and reaches a conclusion as unexpected as it's satisfying. A true original - both the novel and its author. – Ramsey CampbellCompulsively, enviably superb!The Only Criminal is a marvel and Tim Lucas brilliantly weaves wit, romance and glorious wisdom with maestro cool. – R.C. MathesonI love The Only Criminal! One of the most brilliant, interesting, and entertaining things I've read! – Kelley Jones, comics legend(Batman, The Sandman)A wonderful, droll, witty book of mystery, romance, social/media commentary, and satire. A bedtime book to savor! - Joan Hawkins, Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant Garde