Charlie had roots in Witchita. There was the wife he'd divorced, the in-laws he detested and a couple of kids he didn't much bother with, though he had regrets on that account. There were the relationships forged in highschool. And later there were the enterprises he ran with Vic Cavanaugh. Charlie was a lawyer. That's a business asset, knowing who needs paying off when a law gets close to breaking.

After WWII Witchita was a one-industry town, a centre of aircraft production that offered plenty to young, single men pouring out of the armed services. Plenty of young, single men devote plenty of time and money to acquiring plenty of action. Charlie and Vic made sure it was available. On Christmas Eve 1979, Charlie Arglist was making his farewell tour of the strip clubs, peep shows and massage parlours that had kept him in booze, broads and Lincoln Continentals over the years. That's Part One of The Ice Harvest.

Ex-warriors gradually acquire wives and kids and homes to keep them in. By the time of The Ice Harvest, Charlie and Vic's clientele had dwindled to a thin strain of rogues generally unappealing to domestically inclined Kansas femininity. That distilled further Christmas Eve, boiling down to the loneliest and saddest of wildlife either side of a ring-stained bar. Anywhere.

Like Charlie, author Scott Phillips grew up in Witchita. He has an appreciation for its dark history and the type of people who populated it. Phillips creates characters with wit, clarity and compassion, from the dysfunctional family gathered round a groaning holiday feast, to the stripper with the words FREE BIRD tattooed round her right nipple. Each has an off-centre story as credible as walking into the wrong room and finding yourself unable to leave.

But even the most colourfully narrated tour of Loserville will eventually wind down to a pointlessness matching Charlie Arglist's life, Part One. Action leads to conflict in Part Two as Charlie finally goes after the necessary to finance his escape from Witchita. The final part of Charlie Arglist's life is even funnier, darker and more violent than the first part.