Monkey in the Middle — Josh Pryor

A wild and intriguing read, Josh Pryor's Monkey in the Middle calls to mind the futuristic satire of Kurt Vonnegut, the edgy neo-noir of Jonathan Lethem, and the maniacal narrative charge of Chuck Palahniuk. Set at the cusp of the future on the seedier sides of Los Angeles, Monkey in the Middle is a suspenseful and hilarious tale of reckless genetic engineering, post-traumatic stress disorder, and tainted love. Besmirched by his participation in the botched Operation Slay Dracula -- an elaborate mission to assassinate Saddam Hussein -- down-and-out Gulf War veteran Dutch Flowers returns to L.A. with a bad case of “compassion fatigue” -- and acute paranoia. After scraping by for years as a small-time private investigator, he lands a lucrative job with a mysterious genetics research corporation investigating the murder of a lab chimp at their Sapiens Trial Facility, or STF, a sort of hybridized ecosystem -- Brave New World meets the Biosphere. The assignment leads him into a labyrinth of dark streets, strange clues, and ominous characters. Meanwhile, his marriage is falling apart, and Saddam Hussein has dispatched a cross-dressing assassin nicknamed Mr. Wonderful to put him out of his misery.