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Hidden Variables: A Quantum Comedy
A laugh out loud metaphysical detective story about immortality, lousy jobs, murder and quantum physics. James Patterson says about Hidden A Quantum Comedy, "If the idea of a paranormal mystery tickles your funny bone then this is definitely your book. In spades. Hidden Variables is like nothing you've ever read (in a good way). It's very, very funny." Kirkus Reviews calls the "funny, inventive, and engagingly mysterious. It’s a heady, absurd parable about the dying towns, media conglomerates, and dead-end freelance work that make up so much of the American landscape. A cerebral and amusing novel that revolves around a quantum mystery."
Denison is a town in upstate New York so ignored by the rest of the world it disappears. But as failed TV reporter and self-declared private investigator Padraig O’Toole discovers, there’s an upside. You can’t die in a place that doesn’t exist. Not exactly an ideal place to solve a homicide, but O’Toole’s (maybe) murdered brother-in-law was last seen in the town, and he’s determined to track down the killer. Even if, well, there can’t be one.
He plunges into a fantastical world of elastic time, where seasons change in an afternoon, waterfalls flow up, shoot-outs don’t get anyone killed, and the cast of characters includes God Herself, an angel with a weakness for chardonnay, a media mogul hiding out to deny her sons their inheritance, a priest on the lam, a state bureaucrat obsessed with building a family-friendly mall in a place you can't find on a map, and a hapless if good natured police force battling the equally inept drug gangs where not existing kind of makes crime, if not life itself, well, victimless.
HIDDEN A QUANTUM COMEDY is a modern Gulliver's Travels, Einstein with jokes, a dazzlingly original, funny, phantasmagorical detective story about a seeker from the wrong end of the gig economy who stumbles into a sidereal town where space and time have come unhinged, and everyone lives forever, even if it turns out that, as in every journey, what really matters is just finding your way back home.
Denison is a town in upstate New York so ignored by the rest of the world it disappears. But as failed TV reporter and self-declared private investigator Padraig O’Toole discovers, there’s an upside. You can’t die in a place that doesn’t exist. Not exactly an ideal place to solve a homicide, but O’Toole’s (maybe) murdered brother-in-law was last seen in the town, and he’s determined to track down the killer. Even if, well, there can’t be one.
He plunges into a fantastical world of elastic time, where seasons change in an afternoon, waterfalls flow up, shoot-outs don’t get anyone killed, and the cast of characters includes God Herself, an angel with a weakness for chardonnay, a media mogul hiding out to deny her sons their inheritance, a priest on the lam, a state bureaucrat obsessed with building a family-friendly mall in a place you can't find on a map, and a hapless if good natured police force battling the equally inept drug gangs where not existing kind of makes crime, if not life itself, well, victimless.
HIDDEN A QUANTUM COMEDY is a modern Gulliver's Travels, Einstein with jokes, a dazzlingly original, funny, phantasmagorical detective story about a seeker from the wrong end of the gig economy who stumbles into a sidereal town where space and time have come unhinged, and everyone lives forever, even if it turns out that, as in every journey, what really matters is just finding your way back home.
324 pages, Paperback
Published December 11, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 12, 2023
A must read.
If I could describe this book in one word, it would be “special.” While I’ve never laughed out loud so many times while reading a novel, there is also a depth to this book that forces you to look at life, consider the hard questions, and lean into the unknown.
And as with every great book - the story was so enchanting, I couldn’t put it down. It takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions with a cast of characters who are so beautifully developed, you’ll miss them when it’s over. Each one of them - no matter how quirky - is so unbelievably relatable, you’d think the novel was written just for you.
Bill Delaney’s quick-witted humor, incredible (and impressive) understanding of the mysterious world of physics, and fast paced dialogue give Hidden Variables an edge that is entirely unique and as I said earlier - special.
There’s humor, physics, life & death, and even love - what more could you ask for?
If I could describe this book in one word, it would be “special.” While I’ve never laughed out loud so many times while reading a novel, there is also a depth to this book that forces you to look at life, consider the hard questions, and lean into the unknown.
And as with every great book - the story was so enchanting, I couldn’t put it down. It takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions with a cast of characters who are so beautifully developed, you’ll miss them when it’s over. Each one of them - no matter how quirky - is so unbelievably relatable, you’d think the novel was written just for you.
Bill Delaney’s quick-witted humor, incredible (and impressive) understanding of the mysterious world of physics, and fast paced dialogue give Hidden Variables an edge that is entirely unique and as I said earlier - special.
There’s humor, physics, life & death, and even love - what more could you ask for?
Displaying 1 of 1 review