A fearless journalist's brilliant unveiling of a world of drugs,dancing, money, madness--and murder after midnight

Clubland is the sensational story of the rise and fall of a decadent nocturnal empire that stretched over several American cities and spawned its own subculture of celebrities and wannabes. Journalist Frank Owen spent nearly a decade inside the nightclubs of the 1990s--an era when disco gave way to more unsettling dance music, cocaine was supplanted by Ecstasy and heroin, "club kids" mingled with bully boys, transvestites danced with stockbrokers, and celebrities came to watch the scene. Clubland's characters include:
• the Mafia punk turned elegant Gatsby, who, before he was arrested for murder, partied with the cream of celebrities and Miami Beach society
• the charismatic party promoter who created his own youth movement of thumb-sucking, diaper-wearing "club kids," then dismembered one of his followers
• the drug dealer and dance-music pioneer who became a government snitch to avoid jail time
• the enigmatic one-eyed czar in the shadows, who ruled Manhattan's clubland with an iron hand.

A fascinating account of a secretive society, Clubland is outrageous, funny, intelligent, suspenseful, and honest--the striking debut book of a talented writer.