In other words, the chance you've ever heard of it is next to nothing.

The book was more or less horror. Most of it is unmemorable, but the final scene has struck a chord with most science fiction fans to whom I describe it. An evil villain and his henchman have a Scheme, and it works like this:

• Kidnap someone, more or less at random.
• Insert a loop(?) of fine platinum wire in behind the victim's eyeball, into the frontal lobes.
• The wire is rapidly spun, making puree of that portion of the brain. (There was a nine-day wonder kitchen convenience that did this to eggs, it was called the Ronco Egg Scrambler.) This doesn't, as you might think, result in death. Rather, all higher functions are eliminated and the victim is reduced to a vegetative state.
• Take the subject into a bar or railway station, leave him or her sitting at a table where he won't be noticed for a while, and leave.

An obvious question: why do they do this? Well, it isn't clear. There's some implication they think it's fun. There's some implication that they want to spread angst and a low-grade miasma of fear. (An analogy could be made here with the insertion of the word fnord into otherwise normal sentences, practiced by an ancient conspiracy in Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminati books.)

My friend also recalls a gentleman's club with sado-masochistic undertones ... and overtones ... "in fact, I suppose you could call it a sado-masochistic gentleman's club".

If you think you have a vague memory, and want to confirm or ask a question, mail me. I can pass the query on to my friend.

I don't really believe anyone will answer my query with an ISBN. But we can hope, and any information would be better than what I have now. And since people here in Sydney have found just the description amusing, I can hope it entertained you as well. If not, well, that's the internet for you. Thanks for your time.