Maginn's fiction has always had a strong psychological bent and this one is a step further into similar territory to Patrick McGrath. A couple still reeling from a series of failed IVF treatments come into contact with a homeless man with a personality disorder. They take him in as an almost surrogate child but their own problems complicate an already difficult situation. Various obsessions come to the fore and the fragile sanity of all of them is slowly pushed to breaking point. It also acts as a subtle comment on the hands off approach to mental health treatment through the Care in the Community programme. I'm not sure where Maginn disappeared to after this one, but here he's at the top of his game.