British novelist Joan Brady says that toxic fumes from the shoe factory next door made her crazy-so crazy that she wrote a crime thriller! She's won a settlement of £115,000, the Times of London reports. (God, that's such a good idea-especially for those of us living in Greenpoint). The solvent fumes numbed her hands and legs, and she couldn't concentrate on writing literary fiction. (In her defense, the health department registered an off-the-charts reading for toxins). Click for the oddly prescient excerpt.

My name is Hugh Freyl. I am a corporate lawyer, and I went blind in O'Hare Airport only half an hour before the last flight to Springfield. At the time, I was deep into the hydra-headed litigation spawned by the merger of Michigan Genetic and Westman-Boyle. There was $800 million at stake, and the route to this pot of gold was littered with class-action suits, accusations of covert premiums, secret share deals, illusory poison pills. No corporate lawyer can resist a case like this, and I had just about mastered enough of the detail for a plan of action to emerge.