Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh

David Spademan is good at one thing, being a garbageman, his father was a garbageman and he followed suit, but seeing how the once great city of New York is now basically a memory that has all been wiped out by a "dirty bomb", he's been reduced to peruse other areas of trash related work. The people that still inhabit the fringe neighborhoods that once surrounded Time Square spend their time locked into a dreamlike virtual reality where anything goes, Spademan still manages to take out the trash, but in the form of a box-cutter to the jugular while creepy perverts who broke an unwritten rule are locked into la la land. Technically there are no rules in this altered reality known as the Limnosphere, so in short, Spademan takes out whomever his clients ask, so long as he's paid in cash.

He likes his job, to a degree. But his latest target, Lesser, a fat sloppy bed-hopping pervert who likes to peek in on other people's fantasies sends Spademan down a weird and somewhat morally educating ride. A ride that will nearly cost his life and the life of those still close to him. A really extraordinary feature of this story is simply the way in which it is written. In short burst. Like an urgent telegram. Quick and to the point. That was very pleasing and made this book nearly impossible to put down. Without divulging too much of this fantastically written story, I'd like to share a few of my favorite quotes.

"Garbageman.
The Real Kind. With Garbage.
My father loved being a Garbageman.
Never minded the old jokes. Even told a few.
Knock-knock.
Who's there?
The Garbageman.
Yeah. I know, I could smell you coming down the block.
ha-ha-ha." [Chapter 18, Page 113]

"Extremists. Drones. Attacks. Counterattacks. Your god. My god. At the end of it all, you're just left with a bunch of rubble. To my mind, there's not much point in sifting through it afterward, trying to find a fingerprint so you can figure out who is responsible. It's still just rubble."[Chapter 21, Page 151]

"There are fingers on triggers in this country, Spademan, and all the need is an excuse to pull. That's what they're born to do, that's what they're trained to do, and that's what they live to do. That's all they are-fingers. And without triggers, these fingers have no meaning. Triggers, and a reason to pull."[Chapter 37, Page 261]

Unfortunately I came in at the 2nd part of the Spademan novels as Near Enemy does reference several parts from Adam Sternbergh's 1st Spademan book "Shovel Ready." But this did feel like a stand-alone novel that even leaves the reader with a cliffhanger at the end. I'm looking forward to reading "Shovel Ready" and the next Spademan novel in the near future, so seeing how this year's almost over, we can anticipate a new novel very soon!

For more information on Near Enemy or Adam Sternbergh, please visit his Goodreads page.

I received this book from BLOGGING FOR BOOKS for this review