This novel has a jaunty cover, suggesting a somewhat twee mystery lies within. The author’s surname, Sweet, deceives the reader into thinking this is something that it is not. The byline on the twee-looking cover says, ‘How far would you go to fit in?’ For the main character, Edward Jevons, it is not how far he would go, but how far he wouldn’t. As for the author, it seems he has decided to see just how far he can take a satire before it turns into another genre entirely.

Despite a horrifying mishap on a rugby field at school, working-class Edward manages to get into Cambridge, and is determined to succeed at all costs. The best way to do this is by obtaining the right friends and burying his past completely. Edward believes that people will like him if he gives them whatever they want, and if he can fix things for them, like Jeeves does for Wooster in P.G. Wodehouse’s quintessentially British novels. And yet, halfway through this novel, he realises, ‘Jeeves, in fact, was terribly used.’ One of Edward’s closest friends uses him to help them out of a difficult situation, and as circumstances worsen, so does Edward’s mental health. ‘How did they all know how to do this – to talk and nod and progress through their lives?’ he wonders. As someone taking advice from the shadow of a lamppost, we can be certain Edward has lost the ability to progress anywhere much at all.

Dark British comedy appears to be on trend right now, and yet this book goes much, much further. Despite constant references to Wodehouse, there is little humour here, only darkness, madness, murder, and some truly graphic scenes of violence. But gradually, disturbingly, it becomes so very hard to tear yourself away.