The Blue Afternoon

About this book

From the acclaimed author of Brazzaville Beach and The Blue Afternoon a new novel set in present-day London which demonstrates the superbly plotted storytelling that has earned William Boyd his reputation as a writer whose "eccentric wit and restless intelligence exert a powerful appeal" (New York Times Book Review). One cold winters morning Lorimer Black-- insurance adjuster young good-looking on the rise--goes out on a perfectly ordinary business appointment finds a hanged man and realizes that his life is about to be turned upside down. The elements at play: a beautiful actress glimpsed in a passing taxi . . . an odd new business associate whose hiring firing and rehiring make little sense . . . a rock musician who is losing his mind--and a web of fraud in which virtually everyone Lorimer Black knows has been caught and in which he finds himself increasingly entangled. Boyd at his urbane and mesmerizing best.