The call comes out of nowhere—an accusation of theft tied to a movie everyone is talking about and no one fully understands: The Ideas Trade.
What should be a straightforward job for private investigator Frank Gallant quickly turns strange: a celebrated playwright lies catatonic, his work apparently stolen by a rising filmmaker who is the talk of the town. At the centre of it all is a place that promises inspiration at a cost no one can quite explain.
And as Gallant digs deeper, he begins to realise what happens when a man built to solve mysteries turns out to be one himself.
Blending classic noir with metafictional suspense and philosophical unease, The Ideas Trade is a labyrinthine mystery about creativity, control, and the cost of turning ideas into a commodity.
Neil Thomason 