Hot on the heels of last years cult classic 'Sleep with the Fishes' comes Wiprud's second published novel 'Pipsqueak'. It contains Wiprud's trademark offbeat humour struggling to contain itself within a 'gonzo-chase' thriller, and filled with mid-life angst and observations that made his debut so unusual, and marks 'Pipsqueak' as a strong follow-up.

The story concerns the hunt for a 'stuffed' squirrel by a weird selection of oddballs, each replete with their own reasons for ownership. Garth Carson, a professional taxidermist, and supplier of 'stuffed' animals to TV and Film crews spots 'Pipsqueak - the nutty nut' in a roadside antique shop, but the offending animal is 'stolen' by the mysterious 'Cola-Woman' who seems to be the clerk of the store, who in the fracas shoots another would-be kidnapper…..and then the chase begins.

Carson wants 'Pipsqueak' for sentimental reasons, for he featured heavily in his memory as the host of a children's show which featured various low rent cartoons in 'The General Buster Show'. Read - 'The Banana Splits' as an analogy to the type of cheapo US show that Wiprud alludes to. Garth and his long suffering partner Angie get involved in his quest to reclaim this fragment from his childhood, but then the tale takes the first of many twists when Nicholas - his brother, enters the hunt for the 'stuffed' Pipsqueak. Nicholas is the black-sheep brother that we would all avoid like a dose of typhoid, and then to muddy the water, we get a violent cult, a government mind-control conspiracy, and many chuckles along the way. The characters then circle like vultures in their pursuit of the stuffed animal, which may hold the key to more than Garth's childhood memory.

The novel is filled with dialogue that questions memory, 'mid-life' crisis, and observations into the crazy way we live our lives and how some ties bind us to our own personal destiny. Wiprud's style is unique, and the well-meaning comparisons to Hiaason, Westlake and Leonard (which have been reported in many reviews) are rather disingenuous, as Wiprud's voice is uniquely his own, and very, very surreal.

The plot is rather complex, but the way he delineates his characters allows us to wallow in the wacked-out dialogue, as well as push the story at a break-neck pace, which in itself is really about the bizarre way we live our lives, taken to the extreme.

The 'stuffed' squirrel becomes a metaphor rather than a real object of desire, and in so doing elevates this book from a purely comedy novel, to that of having a serious side, and one that puts a mirror at the way we live and die.

UK readers may miss some of the subtle humour based on US Culture and baby-boomer references that pepper the page, but only at the margin, for there is a commonality between both generations, split by an ocean, rather than culture alone.

A solid and very funny read, and one that is more than just another caper novel. This second novel will garner Wiprud a serious following, rather than keeping his fans in the 'cult' bracket.

Highly recommended for the mystery reader looking for something beyond 'quirky', and a delight for those who still wince at 'Roger Ramjet' cartoons, recalling how they, as children sat mesmerised by the drivel that TV networks force-fed us. It recalls an era before the remote-control became king, and as children, we never understood the concept of the 'off-button'.