BEAUTIFUL SUMMER DAY , crowds lined up outside a theater witness a sudden act of extreme road rage: a tap on a fender triggers a nearly homicidal attack. Jackson Brodie, ex-cop, ex-private detective, new millionaire, is among the bystanders.

The event thrusts Jackson into the orbit of the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a washed-up comedian, a successful crime novelist, a mysterious Russian woman, and a female police detective. Each of them hiding a secret, each looking for love or money or redemption or escape, they all play a role in driving Jackson out of retirement and into the middle of several mysteries that intersect in one sinister scheme.

Kate Atkinson "writes such fluid, sparkling prose that an ingenious plot almost seems too much to ask, but we get it anyway," writes Laura Miller for Salon. With a keen eye for the excesses of modern life, a warm understanding of the frailities of the human heart and a genius for  plots that twist and turn. that turn and twist, Atkinson has written a novel that delights and surprises.

KATE ATKINSON'S first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread' First Novel Award and was then chosen as the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year. She is the author of a short-story collection, Not the End of the World, and three other critically
acclaimed novels, Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, and Case Histories. She lives in Edinburgh.

"I am an enormous fan of Kate Atkinson's. One thing I've said about her is that she abides by Henry James's maxim: the first task of the novel is to be interesting. Her plots are rollicking" and engaging, flawlessly constructed, filled with hooks and secrets. That she's able to pull that off with characters who are real and sympathetic, who are involved in moving entanglements, is a little miracle." - HAVEN KIMMEL

ROBIN ATKIN DOWNES has been working as a professional actor for over eighteen years. He is proficient in over forty dialects and has acted in over one hundred of the top interactive titles in the industry. Robin's fans recognize him from Babylon 5, where he was the recurring character Byron. He has guest starred on Charmed, Nash Bridges, CSI Miami, Beverly Hills 90210, ArliSS, Angel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His London theatre credits include the starring role in Dracula, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard II, The Homecoming, and What the Butler Saw.