The Flowery Kingdom and the Land of the Mikado, or China, Japan and Corea (1894)

Ned Loman is a mess. He has a miserable job and hopes to avoid his second heart attack. Bored with life, he takes up smoking and has an affair with Wisteria, a dyslexic vixen who takes him on as a copilot in a murder ring. They turn out to be the world’s most incompetent criminals and soon the police are on their trail. Ned meets a degenerate cast of characters from a man who has a fetish for skin tags to Jack Ash, a detective who trusts everyone. This dark-humored novel is about the corruption and rebirth of a man’s spirit.