As a Cambridge psychologist, Matt is used to an uneventful life. Now all that is about to change.

Shy and sensitive, he has always closely observed those around him as a means to figure them out. But when his brother, the golden child of the family, dies in a freak accident, Matt feels afloat. In the hope of keeping some connection he decides to move to the Northern city where his brother lived as a working-class activist.

Hoping for contentment in a job at the local university, Matt instead finds himself sucked into the murky world of the city’s night life and its shifty inhabitants, as well as the arms of Adele. He needs to use everything he has learned in order to survive, and much more…

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REVIEWS

‘With his latest novel, Dr.Geoffrey Beattie can now be projected onto the same international platform as the late Umberto Eco, who became famous for integrating semiotic theory with fiction, starting with his bestseller, The Name of the Rose….There is little doubt, in my estimation at least, thatGeoffrey Beattie is Umberto Eco’s successor, displaying an uncanny and ingenious ability to blend his insightful work on nonverbal semiotics with an exceptional sense for narrative in this outstanding roman-a-clef…The theorist and writer crystallize seamlessly in this absolutely wonderful page-turner.’
Marcel Danesi, Professor of Semiotics and Linguistic Anthropology, University of Toronto.

‘ A pacy thriller, incisive and compelling and full of psychological insight.’
Brian Maye, Irish Times.