They weren't lying when they said the elevator business has its ups and downs-just ask Dean Ireland. He keeps getting the shaft, and though he's only looking for an easy buck and place to get some studying done when he takes a job as an elevator operator in Greenwich Village, before long he's unwittingly drawn into the complex personal lives of the strange people who live there. Whether it's the art-house snobs on four, the drunken super in a stupor, the herb-smoking doctor, the long-ago famous French singer, or the rent-controlled but controlling old women on six, Dean can't help becoming involved in their lives, lies and secrets, as well as those of some who live outside the building-Ricky, a counterfeit goods dealer who works on Eighth Street, and Nikki, a mysterious, exotic damsel whose disarming good looks mask a dark secret. With its irreverent tone and sharp, witty dialogue, Slidebox is the kind of novel you read in one sitting, and leaves you captivated long afterward.