Money-rich, time-poor is an expression which arose in Britain at the end of the 20th century to describe groups of people who, whilst having a high disposable income through well-paid employment, have relatively little leisure time as a result. As Laurie Fox screamed in her demented way, spitting out the blood she had sucked into her mouth, Sanger seized her around the waist. When a luxury yacht is burned down in the marina, it not only shocks the inhabitants, it reminds everyone that they own yachts, and soon the yacht club is booming.

And the person who supplies it, the impresario of crime, is the unacknowledged saviour of moribund communities. I mean COME ON, didn' you see from the beginning that Crawford was a sick son of a bitch who just wanted to play his little games for ever and ever, and who kind of recruited other people that were as sick as him? A novel like The Crystal World had about eight named characters, Concrete Island only about four, whereas Cocaine Nights feels has the extended cast of Eastenders.Rather than have the two brothers hash the whole thing out right then and there, Ballard makes Frank aloof and cryptic in a very artificial and unbelievable way. Charles stoops and picks up the small handgun which killed him, moves Bobby’s head, gets blood all over his shirt and hands… just as he hears the siren of the police car, looks up to see Inspector Cabrera, who had investigated the original arson attack, who had quizzed him at length about his brother, who had watched his character slowly transform… Inspector Cabrera walks towards him across the court and in the last sentences Charles realises that he, Charles Prentice, will take the blame, take the rap, plead guilty of Bobby’s murder… for the greater good of the community.

But the image is shattered when five people die in a mysterious housefire during a party attended by members of the club, and the club’s manager, Frank Prentice, is arrested for murder. This is Kafka reshot in the style of Psycho‘ and then moving on to make comparisons with chess games . That is something we learn throughout the course of the novel, as we are introduced to the seamier side of life (drugs, pornography, prostitution, burglary, violent crime and murder) in the apparently idyllic resort and the masterminds behind the whole crime spree.

One night, sitting in his car outside the resort’s main nightclub, the Club Nautico, pondering his next move, he sees what he takes to be a violent rape taking place in a car parked nearby. Cocaine Nights" belongs to the genre of crime fiction, instead of Sci-fi, as I would have guessed by the author. But I do appreciate your insights and will reply to each in turn when I'm back online after my nuptials.