Joshua Alan Doetsch drops the reader into the middle of the action, and never lets up. As we follow coroner and dark-water addict Simon Meeks through the streets of Chicago, into the darkest corners of the human—and inhuman—experience, we get twisted and turned until even we don't know what's real and what's due to Simon's absinth habit or the corbies in his head. And yet we're right there with Simon when he first meets Jane, we cry when he loses her, and we know he needs to follow the path wherever it leads, because he has to finds her again. For how often do you experience true obsession?

If anyone had told me before I read Strangeness in the Proportion that I'd cheer for a necrophiliac searching for the corpse he loves, I'm not sure I would've believed it. But like all great pieces of fiction, Doetsch knows how to spin the tale just right to make us love our protagonist. Simon is a wonderfully warped character, and I cherished every minute I spent with him.