The Suburban Salamander Incident

Andrew Harman

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

Madness, mayhem and murder abound in The Suburban Salamander Incident, the hilarious new comic fantasy from one of the funniest writers in town.

It's never easy buying your first house. But for Laurel Mires, part-time eco-terrorist currently doing time for ostrich rustling, things seem to be going surprisingly smoothly. What with the special visit from her estate agent to drop off the keys and her sudden release from prison, well, it's almost as if someone out there really wants her to have No. 13 Merryvale Avenue.

It's only when a host of allegedly mythical salamanders start partying in her coal-effect gas fire that she begins to smell a rat. A very big one.

Review by Chrissi (010500) Rating (7/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 7/10
This is one that for sheer lightweight mayhem, I would recommend. It is not the greatest, funniest or most anarchic book I have ever read, but it was sufficiently good, funny and crazy to keep me amused for a while.

It strikes me that Mr. Harman would have greater sympathy for Swampy (the eco warrior) than for a Property Developer, (wouldn't we all?), although his fascination with genetic engineering would not appeal to an eco-warrior, even if the salamanders appreciate it, and the fairies are there, responsible for more than they realise.

This is a book for all those of us, who, after too much to drink, have argued with someone who has the opposite viewpoint to us, and is wrong!! Not that they do not have a right to a viewpoint, of course, that would be so very pompous of me to say so, but there are times, when some people have such an unshakable belief in a system so preposterous that it makes you want to unravel their tie-dye t-shirt and gag them with it until they relent and agree to listen to why they are not right... Ever been there?
Chrissi (1st May 2000)