Description:

From the primeval rain forest comes an uncontrolled substance never intended for consumption by the civilized mind… To the warrior-shamans of the Venezuelan forest people, the drug is a sacred substance: part pain, part pleasure, all power. Skullflush is pure psychic whiplash … an exhilarating gateway to an advanced consciousness beyond time and species. Deep in the Amazon, the primitive tribe has kept its secret safe from civilization. Until a rising drug lord ends up with a stolen six-kilo stash, and begins to peddle his prize in the nightclubs of Florida. Tampa’s thrill-seekers are eager to sample the pale green powder. But generations of urbanized decadence have left them jaded, shallow, and weak … too weak to handle the drug’s mystic high. The ancient rain forest chemistry warps bone, muscle, and sinew in their city-soft bodies, setting free the ferocious power of man’s basic nature. On the rebound from a life in ruins, Justin Gray is the sole witness who can connect the fearsome power of skullflush with the carnage left in its wake. A marked man, with a new love and an unlikely ally from the heart of the rain forest, he's forced to learn the ways of the urban jungle, where everyone is both hunter and hunted. ** ### Review "Hodge has come up with a scary winner. Unlike many of today's horror genre, *Nightlife* is believable ... keeps you moving in a straightforward line until you get to the catastrophic end." - The Santa Cruz *Sentinel* "Color, sprawl, melodramatic action, and a feel not altogether unlike the prime of *Miami Vice* ... it's right in there like a Charles Willeford portrait of South Florida at its grotesque best. Lots of heat." - Ed Bryant, in *Locus* "Switching back and forth between the mundane, the desperate, and the surreal, *Nightlife* displays a fascinating range: varieties of darkness." - Farren Miller, in *Locus* "Fascinating, frightening, and fierce, without for a moment failing to be richly human." - Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser series