"True Detective meets Swamp Thing in the Artemis Fowl author's
neo-noirish thriller about a curmudgeonly dragon in Louisiana."
--Guardian
From the New York Times bestselling author of the
Artemis Fowl series comes a hilarious and high-octane adult
novel about a vodka-drinking, ***Flashdance-***loving dragon who
lives an isolated life in the bayous of Louisiana--and the raucous
adventures that ensue when he crosses paths with a fifteen-year-old
troublemaker on the run from a crooked sheriff.
In the days of yore, he flew the skies and scorched angry mobs--now he
hides from swamp tour boats and rises only with the greatest reluctance
from his Laz-Z-Boy recliner. Laying low in the bayou, this
once-magnificent fire breather has been reduced to lighting Marlboros
with nose sparks, swilling Absolut in a Flashdance T-shirt, and
binging Netflix in a fishing shack. For centuries, he struck fear in
hearts far and wide as Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie--now
he goes by Vern. However...he has survived, unlike the rest. He is the
last of his kind, the last dragon. Still, no amount of vodka can drown
the loneliness in his molten core. Vern's glory days are long gone. Or
are they?
A canny Cajun swamp rat, young Everett "Squib" Moreau does what he can
to survive, trying not to break the heart of his saintly single mother.
He's finally decided to work for a shady smuggler--but on his first
night, he witnesses his boss murdered by a crooked constable.
Regence Hooke is not just a dirty cop, he's a despicable human
being--who happens to want Squib's momma in the worst way. When Hooke
goes after his hidden witness with a grenade launcher, Squib finds
himself airlifted from certain death by...a dragon?
The swamp can make strange bedfellows, and rather than be fried alive so
the dragon can keep his secret, Squib strikes a deal with the scaly apex
predator. He can act as his go-between (aka familiar)--fetch his vodka,
keep him company, etc.--in exchange for protection from Hooke. Soon the
three of them are careening headlong toward a combustible confrontation.
There's about to be a fiery reckoning, in which either dragons finally
go extinct--or Vern's glory days are back.
A triumphant return to the genre-bending fantasy that Eoin Colfer is so
well known for, Highfire is an effortlessly clever and relentlessly
funny tour-de-force of comedy and action.
