Skintown

"'As I force myself into the back row of the scrum I spot a figure on the ground through the massed ranks of denim legs. It's bad to go down this early. Rule number one is to stay on your feet, and rule number two is to use those feet to run for your fucking life.' Vincent Patrick Duffy (Vinny to his friends and family) is having a bad night. All he wanted was a Hawaiian burger from one of the choice joints on Chippie Street. Just a few hours later, after a mindless act of kindness, Vinny somehow finds himself wedged into the back seat of a shiny black Ford Fiesta, two prime cuts of under-the-influence thuggery watching him from the front. Perspective is everything in a divided town where a bottle is as likely to be filled with burning petrol as it is with beer. And there's nothing that can shift perspective more than the high adrenaline rush of an all-night rave and blissed-out sex, where all divisions dissolve along with inhibitions and most of your clothes. The morning after is going to hurt like hell. Skintown is Vinny's drink- and drug-fuelled odyssey through fights, riots, fishing, ecstasy, sex and acid house. Bristling with a restless energy, this superb debut is a wild ride of a novel."