The Pentecost Papers

'Gloriously inventive, wonderfully entertaining, wickedly knowing . . . Read it and revel' JOHN BANVILLE 'The unsung hero of his generation of novelists . . . Astute, funny and heartbreaking' TANYA GOLD Corruption, destruction, danger and murder: Welcome to the murky world of the super-rich. Timothy 'Timbo' Smith, part-time healer and self-styled security analyst, travels down the dark canyons of global capitalism, from short-selling scams in the City to the depleted rainforests of Brazil. His accomplices in this irresistible safari through the late modern world are two reformed alcoholics, the lovely and brilliant Lee 'Lethal' Thorold, and her husband Professor Luke Deverill, lecherous Oxford philosopher and caustic computer wizard. Their misadventures are followed at a bewildered distance by the played-out diplomatic correspondent Dickie Pentecost, who tags along mostly because Timbo is the only man who can cure his agonising back and is always one step behind the Machiavellian actions of those who precede him. From the author of the searing satire, Making Nice, comes his most entertaining, perceptive and unflinching novel yet, lifting the veil on the seedy realities of modern life.