R. Tranter is a critic and book reviewer who disparages and scorns all present-day literature, but champions a little-known Victorian writer.

One case involves London Transport, and a witness is a tube driver, Jenni Fortune, the daughter of an Irish woman and an absent Trinidadian.

Both Gabriel and Jenni have been hurt recently by the end of love affairs, and find comfort in books, though she also loses herself in a virtual-reality game.

He has started a rumour which will enable him to manipulate the share price of a bank; the repercussions will cause havoc in financial and commodity markets, but bring him enormous profit.

Farooq al-Rashid, an immigrant from Pakistan, has built up a successful business making chutney and other condiments; he has been awarded an OBE; the investiture will be on Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning, he attends the investiture at Buckingham Palace; in the evening, he walks with his rucksack to the meeting-place at the hospital, south of the river.

Radley Graves, a secondary school teacher, becomes dangerously entangled in the fantasy world of "Parallax" the virtual reality game where his character is a sexually aggressive bully.

The novel touches on themes that are issues that we face every day: mental illness, terrorism, the recession, and a sense of trying to survive in a world of madness, consumerism and greed.

[1] Gregory Cowles for The New York Times wrote that "this engaging novel is, like John Veals, finally too obsessed with money to serve as a dependable key to anything".