A darkly comic novel of intrigue, adventure, and the perils of self-invention from the author set in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific during the outbreak of the Second World War.
An elaborately structured book full of sharp twists and false bottoms ... Mann adds fresh layers of intrigue ... A busy book ... Mann ensures that its key elements compel. The tortuous narrative is satisfyingly thick with deceits and betrayals ... At once thrilling and comic, Mann’s novel is a rollicking ride.
Fantastic, fanciful and often extremely funny ... The writing...feels wonderfully inventive, often playing with clichés of the period and then elevating them through Dicky’s individual voice and upbeat, foolish optimism ... A spy thriller of ingenious quality.
Far removed from the staid worlds of most historical fiction, this is a wonderfully comic, gripping, and intriguing novel—like All the Light We Cannot See (2014), but with a wry, macabre humor—following three hugely different, yet brilliantly developed characters.
