It is typical Seymour fare with the book full of tragic characters, tense interaction and a steadily building storyline as the book comes to its climax.

As in most of Seymour's works, you feel that surely there cannot be that many sad and unhappy people working both for and against the intelligence industries. Everyone is either dissatisfied with their life, their spouse or their job and there's not an upbeat character to be seen at all! But there again I guess you don't read Seymour for a happy-clappy storyline!

That said, the book ends in one of the most touching scenes I've read of his and makes the whole novel very complete indeed.

I would definitely recommend this book equally to any Seymour fan and those new to his work.

But the main problem - for me - comes with the characters. I just don't buy them. There doesn't seem to be much of an inner life for any of them, particularly not the central character. Seymour does sad lonely male pretty well, but seems all at sea with a female lead. And his take on sexuality, and on sex in general, is almost a parody. Try reading some of the pages before Charley beds Benny while keeping a straight face!

I would go for his Irish, or his Middle Eastern, books first. Save your money on this one.