The second Hob Draconian novel finds the smart but lazy detective in a race for his life. The laziest PI in the world takes a job that should be like shooting fish in a barrel--except he ends up being the fish! "Mr. Sheckley . . . has an engagingly madcap manner all his own".--"The Wall Street Journal".

In The Alternative Detective Sheckley once again creates a mystery with a comic heart. Hob Draconian, the Alternative Detective, is, in the tradition of Roger L. Simon's The Big Fix, an aging ex-hippie turned private investigator. Still suffering from the culture shock of returning to an America he never made, with a predatory ex-wife on his back and no prospects for work, Hob is wallowing in depression when his nephew brings him a new case. Five surfboards have gone missing on the island of Ibiza. Not the usual sort of case - but The Alternative Detective Agency isn't the usual sort of investigative firm. Draconian's international "staff, " mostly friends from Hob's hippie days, are spread all over Europe - including Ibiza. Hob's not in Europe long before he's got another case, this one more personal. A woman brings the news that an old buddy of his has disappeared in Paris. Accompanied by the attractive - and attentive - woman, Draconian journeys to Paris to search for Alex. This is no simple missing persons job - people are threatening Hob, and pointing guns at him, and generally making it clear that he's in way over his head. Hob Draconian has stumbled onto a real case, with real criminals. Organized crime, international drug trafficking, and Hob's version of the alternative lifestyle are not a good mix, but he's in too deep to get out.

A powerful new narcotic, soma, appears on the streets of Paris, in the dead hands of a small-time drug dealer from Ibiza. The French police want to discover his supplier before the distribution of soma gets out of control, and they think Hob Draconian is just the man for the job. Hob is living in Paris, and business for the Alternative Detective Agency is not exactly booming. Holding his investigator's license hostage, the police send Hob back to Ibiza to search for the dealer's killer. Tracking clues through the British, American, and French expatriate communities on the island and back to Paris and London, Hob follows his leads down a path that connects many of his own friends and acquaintances on the island and cuts uncomfortably close to home. Before long, Hob is caught up in the machinations of a ruthless international drug cartel. The course of events takes a dangerous turn, and Hob finds himself facing more trouble than he bargained for.