2005-07-16 Nihilistic, outre, cutting edge fiction.

His novels are completely different than the usual fare found in the Crime section, dislodging the detective and the policeman from their traditional pedestal. There's no police procedural; in fact, no police at all to speak of. And certainly no traditional hero. As often as not, the criminals and dark and dubious characters are the central focus of attention, and also, this time round, a couple of blundering, hopeless layabouts. We have plenty of victims, too - in this case, young Asian women promised marriage but sold into prostitution. But one gets the feeling reading this that Manchester is a dark city where *anyone* can become the victim and suddenly find themselves tugged into its underworld.

There's no PC pulling of punches - this is hard-hitting, unflinching, controversial stuff about multiculturalism gone badly wrong, clearly supported by meticulous research. But as well as the gritty, unapologetic realism, Paul Southern's books are also splendidly deranged. In the midst of all the grim realities of the city's underworld, there's also a highly quirky subplot involving old style British wrestling (bringing back memories of ITV's 'World of Sport'), with one of the aforementioned layabouts getting involved in the world of gay wrestling videos - wrestling, indeed, in chocolate, for a man known as the Death Angel.

These novels really belong not in Crime Fiction but on the Cult Fiction desk in the mainstream section of the bookshop. This is nihilistic, outre, cutting edge fiction simmering with strange and original ideas.

As with The Craze, you should expect no final restoration of order in the chaotic world of inner city crime that we're presented with. These characters are all on a deranged trip to nowhere with little hope of redemption. All we can do is watch them sink. Both blackly comic and deadly serious simultaneously, it's compulsive stuff which makes Manchester sound like it could successfully play the lead role in a horror film.