From Boingboing - Chine Mieville is one of my favourite authors :

China Mieville talks about his new hard-boiled/fantastic novel Rick Kleffel sez, "I've recently posted an interview with China Miéville about his new book, The City & The City -- certainly one of the most unusual books you could read this year. He talks about the challenges of working in two genres -- the fantastic and the hard-boiled mystery genre -- in one novel." [From China Mieville talks about his new hard-boiled/fantastic novel]