Line #34 Literature/CrookedLittleVein


1	[[quoteright:283:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a4576bfc8ce2dc95f71ecea87cb578f8.jpg]]
2	-> ''I opened my eyes to see the rat taking a piss in my coffee mug. It was a huge brown bastard; had a body like a turd with legs and beady black eyes full of secret rat knowledge.''
3	-->-- '''Michael [=McGill=]''''s first two sentences, setting the mood for the novel.
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5	''Crooked Little Vein'' is the first novel by Creator/WarrenEllis, published in 2007.
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7	Michael [=McGill=], a burned-out PrivateDetective is hired by a corrupt and heroin-addicted White House Chief of Staff to find a second "secret" United States Constitution, which had been lost in a brothel by UsefulNotes/RichardNixon. What follows is a scavenger hunt across America, exposing its weirder side along the way. [=McGill=] is joined by surreal college student side-kick [[spoiler: and eventual lover]], Trix, who is writing a thesis on sexual fetishes [[spoiler: although the true reason why she followed him is that she desired [=McGill=]]].
8	----
9	!!Tropes:
10	* AlienAutopsy: The secret constitution is written on alien skin harvested from a crashed visitor. It's implied that this is what gives it its more powerful properties.
11	* AuthorTract: Ellis has a tendency to let his characters be mouthpieces for his views, especially regarding the Internet. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This doesn't lower the entertainment value]], and it is {{lampshaded}} when characters are unexpectedly monologuing about certain topics:
12	--> '''[=McGill=]''': ''"Now holllld on. A seventy-year-old serial killer is gonna lecture me on the intynets."''
13	* {{Eagleland}}: The novel is a satire on all aspects of American culture. As Warren Ellis is British, he has a natural outsider perspective.
14	* EthicalSlut: How Trix lives her life.
15	* FirstPersonPerspective: The book is written from [=McGill=]'s perspective.
16	* FirstPersonSmartass: The novel features a main character who tells the story from the first person and is most ''definitely'' a smartass, but subverts the rest of the trope by... well, being a typical Ellis protagonist, really.
17	-->"I don't have a secretary. Sometimes I flip on a phone voice-changer I got for five bucks on eBay and pretend to be my own secretary. It is very sad."
18	* FiveFiveFive: When told to call (555) 555-5555 for help, Mike demonstrates his detective skills by pointing out that the number won't work, as it's only used by Hollywood. To which the Chief of Staff responds, "We gave it to them. It works for us."
19	* GovernmentConspiracy: There is a secret constitution only the top government knows. It was lost in TheFifties and the Chief of Staff wants it recovered to use its supposed MindControl powers to restore America morally.
20	* GroinAttack: In a way: At one point [=McGill=] lets fetishists inject his testicles with salt water, which inflates them to gigantic size. He is not happy about it, despite it being apparently painless.
21	* [[spoiler:HappilyEverAfter: Fittingly, it is [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]]:]]
22	--> [[spoiler:''But we did okay.'']]
23	* HeteronormativeCrusader: The Chief of Staff, despite him being a pervert himself in his private life.
24	* HulkSpeak: The aptly-named Muppet in Las Vegas speaks entirely in this.
25	* MindControl: The secret constitution is supposed to be able to influence people who are listening to it being read in the same room. It is explicitly stated that transmission via mass media does not work.
26	* MyGirlIsASlut: The protagonist's love interest is bi and poly. He jokes that he doesn't have a problem with her having sex with other women, but wants to be her only man. In the end, he gives in, saying she can sleep with anyone she wants, as long as she comes home to him. And damn if she's open-minded. She gives the protagonist a lecture about healthy bestiality relationships at one point, when he dares to be offended.
27	* NightmareFetishist: How Mike sees most of the people he comes across. Even his ex-girlfriend, whose current lover makes "strap-ons shaped like dolphin penises". By the rest of the book's standards, that one's pretty tame.
28	* OneParagraphChapter: An early chapter is a mere two sentences long.
29	--> An hour later, I walked into some freak bar on Bleeker Street and yelled, "I'm buying a hundred drinks - for ''me''!"
30	--> Oh, they beat the shit out of me.
31	* PartySchedulingGambit: At the climax, [[spoiler:Mike arranges for the Chief of Staff to collect the Macguffin in the same building where a child sex party is occurring, as they bought the book. And then he has the cops show up and arrest everyone present, Chief of Staff included.]]
32	* {{Polyamory}}: Trix had in the beginning of the novel three girlfriends and two boyfriends.
33	--> '''Trix''': "Polyamory doesn't mean I'm a slut. It just means I have a lot of love to give and I want a lot of people in my life."
34	* PrivateDetective
35	* RecycledScript: If you were a member of Ellis's "Bad Signal" mailing list in the 2000s, there are a number of parts of both this novel and his ''ComicBook/DoktorSleepless'' that will seem immediately familiar. The "heroin rant" by the unnamed Chief of Staff early in the novel appeared almost verbatim on the Signal maybe eight years before the novel was announced.
36	* SerialKiller: [=McGill=] has a pleasant chat with one on a plane.
37	* ShownTheirWork: The book was based on research material posted on [[http://www.warrenellis.com Ellis' website]], mostly odd news items and disturbing pictures from the Internet that Ellis had found or had been sent.
38	* TitleDrop: In a conversation with another detective:
39	--> '''Falconer''': ''"You look weary. A traveling man?"''
40	--> '''[=McGill=]''': ''"You could say that. New York, Columbus, San Antonio, Vegas. On to L.A."''
41	--> '''Falconer''': ''"What a crooked little vein you travel."''
42	* VaginaDentata: The novel features a variant of this trope when the protagonist stumbles into a conversation with a demented fellow mystery explorer that mentions a homicide by Anal Dentata. Yeah, the book is kind of like that. Warren Ellis is kind of like that.
43	* WeirdnessMagnet: [=McGill=], although considering the kind of weirdness he attracts, he calls it 'shit-magnet'.

Context Literature / CrookedLittleVein