THE DRUMMER, Anthony Neil Smith

80's hair-metal band Savage Night imploded years ago after the mysterious death of their drummer in a suspicious fire. But the Drummer, Cal Christopher, is very much alive, having faked his own death to get away from his creditors, from the IRS and from the rock-star madness in general. Now, someone from his past shows up and threatens to expose him, and Cal has to explore just how far he's willing to go to keep his new life--and how far some people are willing to go to force him to confront the mistakes of the old one.

The Drummer is tightly written, with just enough spice in the spare, lean prose to liven it up without being distracting. The bits about rock in general and the now defunct, what-the-fuck-were- we-thinking genre of "hair metal" in particular (think Cinderella) are wry but affectionate, never going over the top enough to constitute full-out satire. In fact, while the book's about a former heavy metal guy, the prose is more reminiscent of early punk: fast, stripped down and propulsive, with flashes of deadpan, sometimes biting wit. Great stuff, from a writer I can't wait to read more of.