Moving throughout between the "serious" and the "funny", Sean Hughes satisfies his readers on two levels : he fulfills what is expected of him as a comedian while al so showing that he is more than just a gag-merchant. '
John Palmer had never ventured far from the narrow-minded small town near Dublin where he was born and the cracks in his psyche are beginning to show despite his material success. But it is when John's childhood tormentor, Red, returns with a desire to rekindle a relationship with John's wife, that he decides to take control with a comprehensive, meticulous act of revenge that no one could forsee or ever forget.