Reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, this novel features an unnamed detective sergeant in the London Metropolitan Police’s Department of Unexplained Deaths. The book opens with the discovery of a writer who has been brutally murdered, and it rockets on from there, as the DS investigates the crime. He almost comes to inhabit the life of the victim, Charles Staniland, as he listens to taped narrations about his life, his estranged family, and his obsession with the cruel and beautiful prostitute Barbara. Raymond’s writing style is noir but poetic, with a sympathy that makes the seamy side of London life more human.