Ed Park’s whodunit-cum-office-horror-show romp shimmers with menace, following a clutch of colleagues working for the New York branch of an unnamed company. Their booze-fuelled wisecracking and workplace crushes have a certain charm, but they’re also on edge, in the midst of a downsizing orgy. No one can deduce who’s behind the seemingly random firings; their feckless boss claims ignorance, raising his palms and crying ‘hoo hoo’ whenever confronted. But after one intrepid sleuth secretly ferrets out shocking revelations, the story builds to a literally explosive climax.

The book opens with short chapters perfect for reading in fits and starts – say, at your desk – and closes with a long, deliriously addictive section. By never identifying the company’s business, Park makes his story one any office drone can relate to. It’s cubicle comedy’s darkest artefact to date, and its most subversive.