This book is hilarious. Apparently it's somehat of a parody of various popular fiction stuff like the da vinci code but I never read that and still liked this book alot.
it's about how elliot, who writes in the first person, tries to solve a jack the ripper type serial killer case, the thwacker, back in very early tamany hall era NYC. You may have heard of the hustle and bustle and tenements of that era, Elliot plays that sort of picture to the hilt. everything is covered in filth, there is a gang of little babies the "mud tots" , prostitutes and aristocrats and basically an amalgamation and exaggereation of every image you ever had of that time in us history. I didn't want it to end. theodore roosevelt is one of the main characters. none of it is historically accurate. the characteres have kerosine powered cell phones and make references to events that don't happen for decades.