[3] Merlin Coverley notes that the character Cookie indicates a debt to London low-life writer Robin Cook (aka Derek Raymond).
[4] There is some confusion over the lead character's name, which appears to relate to a mysterious figure in Céline's Journey to the End of the Night, inspired by Robinson Crusoe; it was released around the same time as the first film of Patrick Keiller's Robinson trilogy, which Keiller claimed took the name from Kafka's Amerika but others, such as Iain Sinclair, have related to Céline and indirectly to Petit.
It combines the stories of "Candlestick", a hired killer working for both sides, with Inspector Cross, a policeman investigating a series of murders.
[10] Kirkus called it "formulaic" and "relentlessly depressing", comparing it to a more miserable version of John le Carré.
[12] The Human Pool (2002) is a thriller, about neo-nazis in contemporary Frankfurt and espionage in World War II Switzerland.