Tripping the Night Fantastic is essentially a whodunit, but one that is far from the traditional. There is a murder, there is a sleuth, and there is a solution, but in tone and humour it is somewhere between House, M.D. and Trainspotting.
Charlie Deavon is a British author who meets a fan (the sexually troublesome Amelia Heart) in a pub. The following morning she is found dead.
The main suspect in the case is Simon, Charlie's agent. Having avoided the police, Charlie, Simon, and the local bartender try to solve the case together. The three men, what with the stress of it all, turn to a new drug called Merlin, which allows them to control and share hallucinations.
From then on, they trip and hallucinate their way through to the story's conclusion.
Charlie and co. like to drink. Only they don't so much go for a drink as go for a splash. They wallow in it like mad fish. It really is no way to go about solving crimes.