Second paragraph of third chapter:

I wondered what this slob’s line was. Or, rather, what Hubbard’s line was going to be. It was less than half a century since the Moon had really been opened up, and already we had not only bureaucrats by the score but hired thugs muscling a way in for the Hubbards of the world – the Hubbards who had gutted the world and now wanted … what?

This is the novelisation of a film which I watched a couple of years ago because it was set in 2021. Here’s the film’s trailer:

The novelisation is by John Burke, author of over a hundred books (mostly novelisations and tie-ins), of which the best known is his treatment of the Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night. I was very pleasantly surprised. Where the film stuttered a bit in terns of style and tone, Burke has gone for a relentless noir vibe in the novelisation, which also enables him to smoothe over some of the awkward bits in the story. I thought it came across much better on the page than on screen. You can get it here.