Beyond the shadow of the rat there is a part of Orlando that, according to the hype the tourist bureau puts out, doesn't exist. No long lines, no shuttles to crowded parking lots, no ten-dollar hamburgers. Just go north from Imaginationville to where fantasies and addictions walk tough streets and openly feed on one another.
The mother of Ike Pike's unborn child has faded into this world. He's not so sure on her name, and he's never laid eyes on her, but he thinks Duncan Sloan can find her.
A good story and a fat retainer put Sloan on the street in a dead run through flop houses, topless bars, trailer parks, and county landfills. And the competition is stepping all over him.
A blithe posse of relocated smack boys gets thrown in the mix, smell money, and come up with some plans of their own for the expectant mother. The game is on. It's played at street level. There are no rules.
Street Level won the 1999 St. Martin's Press/ PWA best first PI novel award and went on to win the Shamus for best first PI novel in 2000. This is pop noir, babies, this is pure Truluck.
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