There are often stacks of used books on the corner of Second Street and Seventh Avenue near the gate of the PS 321 playground.

My guess is that they’re the used books rejected by Park Slope Books. That shop is just a half a block away from there.

Picking up  books off the street is a pastime around here because people are always leaving books in front of their houses.

Yesterday, Hepcat grabbed a signed copy of a novel called, Jack Fish by J Milligan, which has a great cover: an orange tinted photograph of the Coney Island boardwalk and an illustration of Jack Fish, a secret agent in a bathing suit with a spear.

"A wild ride" says the blurb by James Ellroy. Jonathan Ames liked it, too. "What an astounding, loony tour de force! Hard-boiled yet comedic, realistic yet absurd—Jack Fish is a noir story told in technicolor."

On the back, there’s this description of the book:

Secret Agent Jack Fish, an operative of the Elders of Atlantis is dispacted to New York City to locate a rogue agent and spear him. Washing up in Coney Island, first he must learn to breathe, then make his way through the strange streets of this crazy Topworld.

Inside the book, Hepcat found J Milligan’s business card. The book is out from Soho Press.
J Milligan has his own website.

If you want to write a review of this book, I’ll give it to you. Let me know. Here’s the first few lines:

Jack walked out of the sea. They had told him to take it slow, to appear to float in after a long swim. "Just sort of drift in to shore on your back," they had said, right before the Big Kiss that oxygenated his blood and the slap on the tush that sent him on his way.