Created by F. Paul Wilson
Another gloomy future… this one courtesy of F. Paul Wilson.
Most of the Earth’s population has got while the getting’s good, abandoning the ol’ home planet for the safety of outer space.
The few that have stuck around have to make do with a world where, thanks to genetic engineering and cloning, anyone with the scratch can have a pet T-rex (and you thought pit bulls were bad) or a relatively reasonable facsimile of movie star for a date.
That’s the way things go in Dydeetown, a place where dreams are for sale, having a child requires a special license, and everything else goes to the highest bidder. It’s like a Sin City version of Clones-R-Us.
SIG DREYER is the down-at-the-heels private op, complete with cockroach droppings on his desk, who’s trying to keep body and soul together, and frankly? He’s just not doing too well. And then this Jean Harlow dame comes waltzing in with a problem, see?
So what else can he do, but listen? After all, he’s “The Last Detective in the World.”
Sig’s sole appearance, as far as I can tell, is in Dydeetown World, a 1989 book broken into three interconnected tales.
The author himself called Dydeetown World his ” quiet little SF tribute to Raymond Chandler,” according to the intro in the ebook edition. He goes on to explain how the book began as a 1984 novella, “Dydeetown Girl,” and was eventually reworked and expanded into the three-part novel, and became book four of the author’s five-book LaNague Federation series, “a skillful blend of space opera and idea-centered science fiction.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Best known for his horror writing, F. Paul Wilson is also responsible for the adventures of Repairman Jack, a NYC gadget freak that runs a little justice-for-hire business. But Wilson writes all across the spectrum, dabbling in adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and pretty much everything in between. Wilson has won the Prometheus Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic-Con, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers of America, among other honors. He lives in Wall, New Jersey.
NOVELS
- Dydeetown World (1989) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Down Those Mean Skies…
The Case of the Private Detective in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Related Genres
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- October 6, 2026
THE BOTTOM LINE: Anyone who can has abandoned earth, leaving Sig as the last private eye on the planet, working the mean streets of Dydeetown, where genetic engineering and cloning have run amuck, allowing anyone with the scratch to have a pet T-rex (and you thought pit bulls were bad) or a relatively reasonable facsimile of movie star for a date. And then one day a clone of Jean Harlow walks into Sig’s office…
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
