The absurdly brilliant and mind-twisting second novel from Steven Hall, author of the acclaimed The Raw Shark Texts

'Ingeniously plotted and compulsively well-paced' Sunday Times
'A cracking detective story that seems to be investigating its own existence' Jeff Noon

'Are you there, Tom?'
I stood in the doorway, staring at the phone.
My father had been dead for almost seven years.

When Thomas Quinn receives a seemingly impossible voice message, he can't help but wonder if Andrew Black - a legendary, reclusive mystery writer and his father's protégé - is somehow involved.

Thomas knows that Black can't be trusted, that he should be avoided at all costs. But as the search for answers spirals into an examination of the nature of time, entropy, the true forms of angels, fictional stalkers and the secrets of the nativity set . . . Thomas realises that he might not have a choice.