Set in turn-of-the-19th-century London along the banks of the Thames, this novel combines a hugely atmospheric psychological thriller with what may most accurately be described as 'art fiction', for one of the central characters is Monet.
By now a celebrated and successful artist - despite the controversy stirred up by the Impressionist movement - in the early years of the new century, Monet returned to London to paint his famous Thames series. His haunting and intriguing paintings act as witnesses to a grizzly string of Ripper-like murders perpetrated on young women.
Linking the investigation of the murders with the Monet story, is Oliver Craston, a young man from the Foreign Office who by chance discovers a body in the Thames at Waterloo and so becomes involved in the police investigation.
At the same time, with British nerves jangling over the French, who openly sympathised with the Boers, he has been detailed by the Foreign Office to determine whether the presence of Monet and his son at the Savoy Hotel need be regarded with suspicion.
But in fact, there are other, more appalling activities going on in the private apartments on the 6th floor and the backstreet slums of Lambeth which even Monet's most intuitive of paintings can only hint at.
A truly compelling, multilayered and unusual narrative, the novel is illustrated with 12 colour reproductions of the paintings themselves.
