Tony Flaner can’t get his act together. He bumps from job to job, propelled by ennui and sarcasm. Despite having planned the date of his divorce years in advance (his son’s fourteenth birthday, plus four months), when the day comes his stuff isn’t packed and he isn’t ready. When his wife’s lover comes to dinner and Tony flings a gob of quiche at the man, he can’t even hit him.

Those problems pale, though, when a stoned one-night stand ends with Tony’s date dead on the bed and Tony in handcuffs.

Johnny Worthen’s The Finger Trap is wiseass slacker noir improbably but convincingly set in Salt Lake City. Reading this book is like listening to your crazy raconteur neighbor tell you about the worst weekend of his life. It’s a train wreck, but it’s hilarious, and you just can’t walk away.

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