Viking, 1992. Creased and faded spine, foxing to page edges and endpapers.

For all the promise of his name, Jack Skeat cannot be a poet. His friend Rex Petley - eel-catcher, girl-chaser, motorbike rider - takes that prize. Is he also a murderer? And why, forty years later, does he drown out on the gulf? Jack has to find out.

'To judge by this book ... he deserves to be regarded as one of the finest writers at work not only in New Zealand ... but in the English-speaking world' - Andro Linklater, Sunday Times, London.