From the outset, it’s obvious that Jimmy Miles is not your average private investigator. Oh, all of the ingredients for a run-of-the-mill detective story are there at the beginning: an exclusive party and a beautiful, mysterious woman who wants him to investigate a crime that took place in 1977, a murder for which her father was convicted and executed.  But this isn’t the only mystery to be solved, nor is it even the most important.

Other classic elements are there, too: the snappy dialog, a feeling that if this were a movie, it’d probably be shot in black and white.

But from the start, there are pieces that don’t quite fit, questions without answers. Who is following Jimmy Miles, and why? Who is living in the supposedly-empty house where the murder took place? Why does Jimmy Miles see auras around certain people? Who are the Sailors?

There is a dark, surreal air to the novel which is reinforced by the author’s style—short, staccato sentences, as important for what they don’t reveal as for what they say.

The novel’s opening scene is one of those “murder mystery” parties where actors stage a crime and it’s up to the guests to solve the puzzle and identify the guilty. This is the author’s way of telling the reader that he’s going to have to do the same thing. But this isn’t your ordinary murder mystery. At the party, there’s a definite “body.” In Dan Vining’s THE QUICK, you may first have to figure out who’s dead.

Hence the title. It’s explained later in the book, but if the reference momentarily escapes you, pull out your Bible and check I Peter 4:5 (among others).

Don’t expect an easy read—this isn’t a passive book. It demands that you think, that you become involved.

A final word or two of advice: be wary of Sailors. And stay home on the night of a blue moon.