Drunk on the Moon by Paul D.Brazill

This post first appeared as a guest post on the blog Gelati's Scoop HERE

The very first thing that strikes you about this book is the excellent cover designed by Giovanni Gelati of Trestle press and the author of the blog that has published this post. The author describes the concept of Drunk on the Moon as something he came up with after a few beers. However, those that know, Spinetingler award nominee, Paul D. Brazill’s work will know there is no need to worry about the quality of the story. Many people out there will recognise the title as a Tom Waits song and what an apt title for a tale in which the PI, who is an ex-cop, is also a werewolf.

The author describes the PI as a metaphor for the perhaps clichéd idea of the “lone wolf” battling diversity yada yada. Paul has fun with this idea & makes it flesh, so to speak, and werewolf PI Roman Dalton is born. This of course works out as a great device, where you have werewolves you can have other fantastic creatures inhabiting the same universe. This of course also allows for some genre crossing. Some might have tried to put a horror slant on this but Paul, who favours noir, is cannier than that. He pokes fun at the whole PI and hard-boiled scene by using humour. A trademark of Paul's writing is his great sense of humour and you must keep up with the gags, which at times is tricky as they come in thick and fast, like bites from a rabid werewolf. An enjoyable romp that pokes fun at several of the genres clichés: The beautiful babe with a problem that sends our hero on a thankless errand and is quite likely to (I ain’t telling) have her own secret agenda. There is the evil big boss with his goons, in this case zombies. Then there is the boozy dive where the characters meet up, get drunk and generally cause mayhem which is of course also a must.

I have a lot of reading on the go at the moment so I told myself I would get around to reading Drunk on the Moon in a week or two. No chance - as soon as I read the first few lines and chuckled to myself I was hooked and read it in a single sitting. An immensely enjoyable romp. Go on buy it and let Roman Dalton go for your jugular. Look out for other books in this series coming soon from Trestle Press featuring a glittering array of guest authors including Jason Michel, Frank Duffy, Cormac Brown, Richard Goodwin and others.