Set in London in the recent, but now distant-seeming past, this noir thriller takes us into some dark places. As preoccupied with sex and violence as a Greek tragedy, it’s also in a traditional of political satire taking in Hogarth, Swift and Orwell. At the heart of this story, which opens with the death of a scientist is a British Minister, Emma Henderson. She is a sexually-voracious Blairite with a convincing, media-friendly exterior but a troubled soul. When Rick Gilliver, a down-at-heel, alcohol-dependent journalist, accidentally discovers her wrong doings, he embarks on a reluctant quest to bring her down. In this convincing, close-to-real tale, Henderson is the author of a warped, Machiavellian primer, the New Labour papers. This document provides the spine of the story, providing a retrospective gloss on what the author clearly sees as the deceptions and abuses of New Labour.