The Nice and the Good

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Sea The Sea comes a story about revenge and reconciliation and the difference between being nice and being good.   John Ducane a respected Whitehall civil servant is asked to investigate the suicide of a colleague. As he pursues his inquiry he uncovers a shabby evil world of murder blackmail and black magic. He begins to feel more trapped than trapping.   In contrast to a stagnant summer in London Octavian and Kate Gray’s adoring community on the Dorset coast seems to offer Ducane refuge but even here the after-effects of violence poison an atmosphere already electric with adolescent quarrels and intrigue. After a swim into the underworld Ducane begins to realize that niceness is not enough.  A feast.--The Guardian