Cocaine Nights

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Cocaine Nights" belongs to the genre of crime fiction, instead of Sci-fi, as I would have guessed by the author. Also, The Ballard-Bond connection, Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, and the phrase you never want to hear John Mitchinson say in person. that she becomes homicidal, and Cocaine Nights (1996) centres on an island community whose cultured lifestyle is supported by crime.

After enjoying High Rise so much, we went on a bit of a spending spree and bought several Ballard novels to follow it up. Its beginning is really nice and you get the feeling that this is going to be such an amazing story and wow-how-much-fun-you're-gonna-get.The thesis is that society is sinking into a profound slump of boredom and accidie, addicted to TV while its mind vegetates. Someone has to wean them off the Valium and Mogadon, teach them how to face the day without a bottle and a half of vodka. When Paul Hamilton tells him that Frank’s much-delayed trial is about to start the next day, Charles brushes it off. The further I got into this the more I became less interested in the identity of the killer/killers responsible for the deaths of the Hollingers and their maid, and more drawn to the boring comatosed lives hidden away behind the curtains at the Residencia. Nobody, let alone the narrator, Charles, believes that Frank committed the crimes, and Charles sets out to prove that he is innocent.

However, once the premise of this novel resolved into how the expatriate British, French, Swiss and German residents of gated communities on the idyllic Mediterranean coast of Spain turned to crime (hard drugs, both taking and dealing, prostitution and pornography) to overcome their leisure-induced boredom, I felt that it became more far-fetched and improbable than insightful or persuasive. It’s everything else, but especially his portrait of boredom and impunity among the rich and privileged. Posing as a whodunnit, or perhaps more accurately a whydunnit, Cocaine Nights is a tale awash with drugs, violence, pornography, and the odd psychiatrist.Ballard keeps the dialogue snappy and true; however, the leisurely pace, the comings and goings of this Porsche and that BMW, all the swimming and tennis practice sap the novel of any tension. There was a criminal fire that killed five people and the local sports club manager Frank Prentice immediately claimed responsibility for it. When Frank's brother Charles arrives, intent on unravelling the mystery, gradually he uncovers the secret world behind the resort's civilized image.