“True Detective meets Swamp Thing in the Artemis Fowl author’s neo-noirish thriller about a curmudgeonly dragon in Louisiana.” —Guardian
From New York Times–bestselling author Eoin Colfer comes a hilarious and high-octane adult novel about a vodka-drinking dragon 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 struck fear in hearts far and wide as Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie. Now he goes by Vern, hiding from swamp tour boats and rising 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.
A canny Cajun swamp rat, young Everett “Squib” Moreau does what he can to survive, trying not to break his saintly single mother’s heart. Working for a shady smuggler, he witnesses his boss murdered by Sheriff Regence Hooke. But when the dirty cop goes after Squib, Vern comes to the rescue.
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 Vern’s go-between—fetch his vodka, keep him company, etc.—in exchange for protection from Hooke. Soon the trio are careening headlong toward a combustible confrontation in which either dragons finally go extinct—or Vern’s glory days are back.
A triumphant return to genre-bending fantasy, Eoin Colfer’s Highfire is an effortlessly clever and relentlessly funny tour-de-force of comedy and action.
