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This book is told from the perspectives of two characters; John and Don. This was an effective move on Kerr’s behalf, as it certainly breaks up the prose and helps to retain the reader’s interest.
John Houston is a multimillionaire with a beautiful wife, a number of mistresses, countless extravagances and an apartment in Monaco, for tax reasons. He made his fortune by creating a formula for a series of best-selling novels designed specifically to appeal to the average man on the street. John has a team of four ghost-writers to do all the writing, meaning that he can produce an average of six bestsellers per year. John calls his group of ghost-writers his ''atelier'', his ‘workshop’, perfectly reflecting his views of them.
Don Irvine is John’s longest serving ghost-writer and is, in his own estimation, horribly underpaid. When John’s wife is found murdered in their Monaco apartment, John goes missing and subsequently becomes the primary suspect. One of the most compelling aspects of the book is the relationship between John and Don, who are very different characters.
