Two reporters working as a team investigate the brutal killing of a policeman whose own methods were less than commendable. But this is not a straightforward thriller, Dexter, the author of Paris Trout (1986), is himself a former journalist. The real story here concerns the loss of confidence suffered by Ward James, one of the reporters. The narrative is in the unsteady hands of Ward's self conscious and angry younger brother Jack, a former college swimming star. Their father is a dedicated but lonely local newspaper owner who quietly hides his paternal disappointment. About the most interesting aspect of this readable, reflective but curiously subdued, almost diffident, narrative is that it is Dexter's fifth novel yet it reads like a first, with Dexter appearing as halfhearted as his uneasy narrator.
