Shuttlecock

`Serious, moving and often very funny indeed' Observer Prentis, senior clerk in the `dead crimes' department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused. Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him - and his father. Gradually Prentis suspects that his father's breakdown and Quinn's menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father's memoirs, `Shuttlecock' . . . `Excellent, profound' Alan Hollinghurst, London Review of Books `An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour' Sunday Times `A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession' Daily Telegraph `Swift's central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour - Shuttlecock is thoroughly and beautifully odd - always honours them' Times Literary Supplement