A stoner PI, a con man, Lizard Jesus, and mountain lions. There's probably medication for that.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Peter Key has recently inherited a considerable amount of money and a dilapidated house. You'd think that would be enough to keep a man occupied, but apparently not. Although he has no desire to return to his career as a private investigator, trouble has other plans. As it turns out, trouble arrives wearing white tunics and sandals, with a firm belief in Lizard Jesus.
Yes, you read that correctly. Lizard Jesus.
It all starts when two kids down the street begin receiving mysterious Amazon packages addressed to someone who doesn't live there. Then two members of a rather peculiar cult show up looking for the same person. Everyone is confused. Including me.
Before Peter can make sense of that mess, another case drops into his lap. A little old lady has been burglarized while stuck in a hole in her floor, and the thief couldn't even be bothered to help her out. Dastardly, if I may say so myself.
And we're off!
Peter Key is not your typical brilliant, methodical private investigator. He's a stoner who seems to survive on dumb luck and a remarkable ability to stumble into situations that would send a sensible person running in the opposite direction. Along the way, he encounters a con man, a fellow preaching the gospel of Lizard Jesus, and an assortment of characters who make you wonder whether there's something in the water.
The humor is absurd, the situations are ridiculous, and Peter often seems just as bewildered as the reader. But I suspect that's exactly the point. This isn't a mystery that takes itself particularly seriously, and neither should you.
What impressed me most was the imagination behind the story. Jack Friday takes seemingly unrelated mysteries, throws in a cult with some truly bizarre beliefs, and somehow brings everything together. I suspected the cases would eventually connect, but I couldn't figure out how. That kept me reading, even when I was wondering what on earth Peter was going to do next.
The pacing is driven as much by Peter's unpredictable adventures and the eccentric characters he meets as by the mysteries themselves. There were moments when the absurdity got a little tiresome, and I could have done with fewer opportunities to exercise my eye-rolling muscles. But for the most part, the humor worked, and I appreciated the sheer creativity of it all.
I also enjoyed the ending. The various threads came together, the story reached a satisfying conclusion, and I was left feeling that the journey, however ridiculous, had been worthwhile. Sometimes that's all I ask of a book. Well, that and a little less confusion, perhaps.
The book includes LGBTQ+ representation among its characters, which fits naturally into the story. There's also a healthy dose of irreverent religious satire, particularly surrounding the cult and its rather unusual beliefs.
Content warnings: Alcohol and recreational drug use, manipulation, and some violence.
Readers who appreciate quirky private investigators, unconventional mysteries, eccentric characters, and humor that ventures well into the absurd would enjoy this novel. If you like your mysteries straightforward, your detectives sober, and your religious figures decidedly non-reptilian, this probably isn't the book for you.
I'm giving Big Cult Energy four stars. I got lost a couple of times while I was reading it, and I spent plenty of time wondering what color the sky is in these people's world. But it was wildly imaginative, entertaining, and ultimately satisfying.
The title of the book is Big Cult Energy, and lemme tell ya', they're not joking.
