https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/22/highfire-by-eoin-colfer-review

True Detective meets Swamp Thing in the Artemis Fowl author’s neo-noirish thriller about a curmudgeonly dragon in Louisiana

Irish author Eoin Colfer mined the tropes of contemporary fantasy in his bestselling Artemis Fowl children’s books about a tweenage criminal mastermind facing off against pixies, fairies and trolls. Those adventures straddled the fantasy, science fiction and spy thriller genres to fun effect; in his first adult fantasy novel, Colfer takes on dragons. Highfire is a briskly entertaining outing centred on the curmudgeonly and slobbish Vern, last of the fire-breathing beasts of folklore.

Vern – or to give him the full title he enjoyed centuries ago when dragons were a force to be reckoned with, “Wyvern, Lord Highfire” – is hiding from the modern world on a small island in the heart of the Louisiana swamps. With alligators, snakes and dense foliage protecting him from unwelcome attention, he subsists on Absolut vodka and 1980s movies (Flashdance is his favourite).