Dead Cat Bounce by Damien Owens (Flame, £6.99 in the UK)

Things are not going well for Joe Flood. Working for a PR company he hates, he lives in a bedsit in which you couldn't bounce a cat, and the girl he fancies has just broken his friend's nose. Then his mother rings to tell him his unmarried sister is pregnant. Dead Cat Bounce was rather rounded on by critics who seemed to expect the well-publicised large advance received by Owens to yield a credible successor to Flann O'Brien. The problem is one of expectation. If you're looking for a light novel full of whimsical observational humour about a Dublin lad's life (and let's not forget there are countless novels aimed squarely at the women's market that offer little else), then this is a perfectly respectable offering. If you're expecting Dead Cat Bounce to take its place in the pantheon of great Irish literary fiction, then get a sleeping bag and thermos ready - you'll be a long time waiting.