Shock-jock coke-head

Iain Banks wrote Dead Air in just six weeks. You are impressed before you read it. You are amazed afterwards - that long?

It's the story of Edinburgh-born Ken Nott: shock-jock, coke-head and ladykiller. We first meet him on 11 September, 2001, guzzling champagne and chucking fruit from an East End penthouse.

A pretty crazy kinda guy, then. Or at least Banks seems to think so, for he treats us to 300 pages of Ken's ranting and raving before any sort of plot turns up.

When it does, it's a great little chapter in which Ken has to burgle a house while people are still in it. But it is a brief respite from the general tedium, and its success has nothing to do with the rest of the book, or its hero. Stick anyone inside a cupboard with a gangster on the other side and your pulse will probably quicken.