Twenty years in the seaside town of Brighton, England, has given Paz Wheat the notion he’s seen it all as a private investigator. But that’s before young "wild spirit" Alison ("Mack") tumbles bewildered and unannounced into his office. For the buttoned-up Anglo-American there’s nothing more unnerving than a touch of the random, but what does this enigmatic bohemian want? Surely not the job that hasn’t even been advertised yet? It’s a mystery and he dislikes mysteries until they’re solved, and then he loves them.

Thus begins a relationship that changes both: the solitary man wedded to his work and the firebrand living with her long-term girlfriend. Paramount to them are the cases they handle sometimes intricate, always intriguing, like The Chagall Lithograph, The Shadow Yacht, A Box Of Air, and The Everything Man. They investigate strange disappearances–missing persons, but also artworks–and grapple with the trickiest of fraudsters and chancers.

John Holmes has extensive experience working with investigators, loss adjusters, and lawyers. As a social sciences graduate he has a keen interest in the psychology of the private investigator. His previous books include the surrealist Lily Upshire Is Winning–part coming-of-age story, part corporate satire.