Crooked Little Vein Explained

Crooked Little Vein
Author:	Warren Ellis
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Genre:	Hardboiled detective, transgressive fiction, thriller
Publisher:	William Morrow
Release Date:	July 24, 2007
Media Type:	Print (Hardback)
Pages:	304 (first edition, hardback)
Isbn:	0-06-072393-9
Isbn Note:	(first edition, hardback)
Dewey:	813/.6 22
Congress:	PS3555.L61717 C76 2007
Oclc:	80361435

Crooked Little Vein is the first novel by comic book writer Warren Ellis, published by William Morrow on July 24, 2007.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}

The novel is written in the first-person, similar to much of the hardboiled detective genre. The book was based on research material posted on Ellis' websites, mostly odd news items and disturbing pictures from the web that the author had found or had been sent.

The novel has been translated into Spanish, German, French, Czech, and Italian.^[8]

Plot summary

Michael McGill, a burned-out private eye is hired by a corrupt, heroin-addicted White House Chief of Staff to find a second "secret" United States Constitution, which had been lost in a whorehouse by Richard Nixon. What follows is a scavenger hunt across America, exposing its seedier side along the way. McGill is joined by a college student, Trix, who is writing a thesis on sexual fetishes.

McGill has to deal with strange events sometimes unrelated to his adventures – he describes himself as a "shit-magnet", with weird phenomena following him wherever he goes.

Critical reception

About.com reviewer Jonathan Lasser called Crooked Little Vein "an ace put-up job" and wrote that it was "evidence that freedom is more valuable than repression".^[9]

Whitney Pastorek, reviewing for Entertainment Weekly, noted that the work "is not for the faint of heart" and that Ellis has "got a bright future outside of the picture books".^[10]

External links

• Interview with Warren Ellis at Newsarama
• Interview at Publishers Weekly

Notes and References

1. Crooked Little Vein. Entertainment Weekly. March 16, 2009. Pastorek. Whitney. July 17, 2007.
2. News: Science Fiction & Fantasy: Demons, mental and physical, abound. Sfgate.com. March 16, 2009. August 19, 2007. Berry. Michael.
3. News: A comic book hero sends up America. TheStar.com. March 16, 2009. August 12, 2007. James. Grainger. Toronto.
4. Web site: Claude Lalumière's 2007: Recommended Reading. Locusmag.com. March 16, 2009. Lalumière. Claude. January 28, 2008. Politically radical, outrageously extreme, surprisingly tender, and always entertaining, this debut novel mixes the conventions the hardboiled detective story, the political thriller, the sexual odyssey, and magic realism..
5. News: Favorite Books of 2007 - Crime spree. Los Angeles Times. March 16, 2009. Weinman. Sarah. December 9, 2007. And then there is comic king Warren Ellis' debut prose novel, "Crooked Little Vein" (William Morrow), a heart-shredding work of scatological brilliance that gleefully annihilates private-eye tropes and pole-vaults over taste lines..
6. News: When graphic novelists turn to prose, the result is something wicked. https://archive.today/20130127204318/http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bkw-weinman5aug05,1,263706.story?coll=la-headlines-bookreview. dead. January 27, 2013. Los Angeles Times. March 16, 2009. Weinman. Sarah.
7. Web site: Normal Isn't Creepy. Esquire. March 16, 2009. Klonick. Kate. August 8, 2007.
8. Web site: Comunicato Stampa. September 30, 2009. Comicus. September 30, 2009. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110722030852/http://www.comicus.it/view.php?section=news&id=6587. July 22, 2011.
9. Web site: Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis, Book Review . August 30, 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070912103832/http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/fiction/fr/crookedLittle.htm . September 12, 2007 . dead .
10. Book Review: Crooked Little Vein, by Warren Ellis. Entertainment Weekly .