A fun meta-story where the main character Simeon Grist is a character in a novel. Also many great references to other fictional characters. ( )

OK, you write a detective series in the 90s that gets great reviews but doesn't sell well. Later you write 2 more series that get great reviews and more commercial success (I guess, not really in the business but I found the other two series but this one only after its re-release). The first series falls out of publication.

What do you do? You can republish the first series--it got good reviews at the time, remember. But it isn't perfect, and has aged unevenly (like many things from the 90s, or any other decade). You can clean the books up a bit, but still, will your fans buy them? Will they like them if they do? You don't want to leave money on the table, but you don't want to hurt your reputation, and you're objective enough to see they're good but not as good as your more recent work.

What if you write another book in the series to bring it up to date? A lot of time has passed, and your thirty-ish protagonist would be in his 60s. Connecting those dots would be tough, and for an unclear narrative payoff.

I'm guessing Hallinan's subconscious stewing over all of this resulted in an uncensored imagination running amok, and so this book. I saw it in Amazon Prime books, found and read the re-released original series, which was ok but clearly early work, and then fell through the portal into the alternate universe of Pulped. I'm glad I did. It didn't change my life, but it was great fun. ( )