Description: The worlds of urban gentrification, overpriced real estate, and gang violence collide in this wry and sardonic crime novel by author and comedian Charles Demers. As a shaky truce between suburban gangsters starts to unravel, schlubby civilian Scott Clark has other things on his mind: if he can't afford to buy out his ex father-in-law, Scott's about to lose the only house he's ever called home. In the red-hot urban housing market, he doesn't have a chance--until he and his best friends take the desperate measure of staging a fake drive-by shooting on the property to push down the asking price. But when Scott's mobster-posturing stunt attracts the attention of the real criminals, his pretend gang soon finds itself in the middle of a deadly rivalry. With wicked humor and a brilliant cast of desperate characters, Property Values explodes the crime novel trope while exploring the comic lengths a man will go to in order to become a home owner in today's market.
Brief description: Charles Demers is a comedian, writer, and playwright, and the author of the novels Property Values and The Prescription Errors, as well as the nonfiction books The Horrors, Vancouver Special, and (with George Bowering) The Dad Dialogues. He's a regular on CBC's The Debaters and is the voice of Walter the Slug on the Emmy-winning Netflix cartoon Beat Bugs. He is also the editor of Robin's Egg Books, a humor imprint of Arsenal Pulp Press. A longtime political activist, he lives in East Vancouver with his wife and daughter.