Cocaine Nights - J.G.Ballard Strange goings on in an expat community on the Spanish coast

J.G.Ballard has been a science fiction author since the early 1960s. More recently he has crossed over into the less exotic regions of 'main-stream' fiction, with semi-autobiographical works such as Empire of the Sun. Cocaine Nights is a 'straight' crime novel - not a whiff of autobiography anywhere! When five people die tragically in a fire at a Spanish resort which is an exclusive enclave for rich retired Brits, the manager of the sports club, Frank Prentice strangely pleads guilty to their murder. However, no one believes him to be guilty. Not even the Spanish police. And it is left to Frank's brother Charles to discover what is going on, that behind the resort's civilized front lurks a seedy world of crime. Cocaine Nights can be read on several levels. It is an imaginative, gripping, well-written mystery. But it is also a vision of a desperate society that is trying to come to terms with boredom (sorry, unlimited leisure).

Publisher: Flamingo Date: 1996 Pages: 329 Price: £6.99 Format: Paperback ISBN: 0 00 655064 9 Reviewed by: Rod Cameron