Lo Mein

by Robert Eringer

A new novel featuring a detective with Tourette's syndrome sounds a lot like Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn, but don't be fooled. Lo Mein is Robert Eringer's second book (after 1998's Crinkum Crankum) to star ex-FBI agent Jeff Dalkin, a Bruce Willis look-alike with an involuntarily foul mouth, and this time he's on the trail of a New York artist-turned-terrorist. Willard Stukey is going to keep murdering people who are dressed as Disney characters until he gets a solo exhibition at MoMA and a fullpage review in the New York Times. And Dalkin is the intrepid sleuth hired by Michael Eisner himself to stop the madness.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 15, 2000

Reviews

[Weaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo Mein is a hilarious piece of fiction, written like a 1950s detective novel. Our protagonist is a barely likable Bruce Willis look-alike with FBI connections and a penchant for a fast-buck, among his many short comings, his Tourette syndrome betrays him in many situations with barrages of four-letter words.

The villain in this story is an even less likable fellow, a struggling artist who resorts to mass-murder to draw attention to his art-work, threatening more mayhem as a fugitive if his demands are not met.

We are treated to a couple of clever plot twists and a lot of seemingly meaningless details along the way that Eringer masterfully uses to reintroduce us to the book's characters in the final chapters.