If you're after a cocktail of sex, sleaze, embossed business cards, designer suits, chainsaws, murder, drugged up rants and Phil Collins, this novel of 1980s excess should do the trick. Set in the world of stuffy financial business, Patrick Bateman is the successful high-flyer who descends into murder. Black comedy has never been so darkly ego stained.
From Wall Street to seedy back alleys, from business lunches to hiring prostitutes, 'American Psycho' reveals both sides of American corporate success, peeling back the gloss to reveal the grime underneath. Another excellent film adaptation is available for this one, with Christian Bale giving a gloriously over the top performance as Bateman before he went on to become another dark anti-hero: Batman.