Asparagus Grass

Story Teller

Adrian Deans

We all have secrets and live much of our lives in a private world which is disclosed to no-one. Our hungers, fears and deepest desires – hidden even from ourselves – are kept in closed rooms located in the basements of our souls.

Adrian Deans is a storyteller who dares to open the doors that most would prefer left closed. Open one of his books and you enter a world where the rules have shifted – a world you know, but slightly askew. Dangerous (and disturbingly humorous) things can happen here.

Those who discovered his debut novel in 2010 (Mr Cleansheets, Vulgar Press) were surprised and delighted by one of those rare and special books that makes big promises, and delivers. In fact, delivers much more than it promises because the full scope of the novel is only gradually revealed: a hero’s journey morphs slowly into a genre-twisting crime novel, and the frantic conclusion leaves the reader blown away by the masterful interweaving of multiple plot threads with an impact far greater than the sum of its parts.

But if Mr Cleansheets was the cult-status entrée, Straight Jacket was a main course – another genre-confounding crime novel which rollicks along at a breakneck pace, and yet is textured enough to go on giving up its secrets over multiple readings. The result is a deeply immersive novel with an off-beat premise, original plot twists and darkly comic dialogue that crackles like a Tarantino movie.

The author is a lawyer who has studied the sinister side of the human condition – criminology and forensic psychiatry – and these influences are felt throughout his work. Straight Jacket in particular is an unnerving, disturbing, yet humorous and highly compelling novel which saw him mentioned in the same breath as Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) and Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho).

Turning his hand to historical fiction, Adrian published The Fighting Man in 2017 – a reinterpretation of the Bayeux Tapestry that told the story of the Battle of Hastings through the prism of ‘the man in green’, one of Harold’s friends who prepares to board ship in Scene IV of the tapestry. It’s a strange tale of love and revenge with some of the most gripping battle scenes to be found anywhere.

Most recent is the book that Adrian calls his masterpiece – a crime/spec fiction mash-up titled Welcome to Ord City. Set in 2030, it is a multi-threaded exploration of Australian subcultures that readers will find hilarious, confronting and deeply intriguing. Could it really happen here?

After 25 years learning his trade, Adrian Deans is ready to lose his ‘cult writer’ mantle and become an overnight sensation.

And watch out next year for Adrian’s next speculative fiction work. Asparagus Grass will be published by Hague Publishing in 2021.