Divorced, sole carer of his epileptic father, Howard Dawson is a Police Community Support Officer in a small north English town. In and out-of-uniform Howard's life is drift, losing himself in reveries - on the true purpose of the offshore turbines, what goes on in a chapel with no posters, the noises coming from strange allotment beasts.... When dead cats stuffed with snail shells start getting left in gardens, and there's a spate of robberies with odd things taken - a pub's legendary flugelhorn, a used kettle – and with no-one else available to investigate Howard is left to try to find out who could be killing the cats. Not his only task: Howard also has to deliver talks to schoolchildren on graffiti and vandalism, and to prevent fairground mayhem... at one point he even ends up rescuing a girl from a mudslide.

“Sam Smith has written a novel that unflinchingly portrays the everyday dissociations and disappointments of an ordinary person, Howard, a police support officer going about his duties in a

northern post-industrial town. But by steering resolutely clear of cliché and sentimentality Smith brings Howard alive and allows the reader to share his experiences, his puzzlement at events he only ever half understands, his duty to his ill father and his cautious, modest hopes. Howard's alienation is palpable, a constant sense of being not quite connected with his own world, until on one marvellous occasion when circumstances demand selfless action and Howard, for once in his life, doesn't hesitate to step forward and become what the moment demands. It is as near as many of us will ever come to enlightenment, and it will live with me for a very long time...” Andy Hickmott

“Not sure as to whether all of Sam Smith's books have this luster, this reader is left with the sense of getting to know an author with whom sharing a cup of tea would be a highlight of communication. He simply has it all - brilliant wordsmithing, ingenious ideas for plot lines, a wealth of knowledge about how people interact (and don't) as they step along the life path, and a conversational intimacy of style that makes him an instant best friend/mate. Highly recommended.” Grady Harp

“... Smith fills the novel with details of the eponymous town, a dying backwater suffering the double loss of both fishing and mining industries, Howard’s middleaged going-nowhere life and his

relationship with his fellow police officers and his epileptic, domineering father, and even some genuine action along the way. // I must admit that I felt a little ambivalent at the premise of the novel; but, once I’d started reading, I was hooked by the vivid characterisation of the protagonist and his world, as well as a surprisingly-intriguing mystery.... Smith is an author who can take you into a fully realised world and keep you there, attentive, as he vouchsafes nuggets of background and character along the way. An extremely absorbing read. Highly recommended.” DJ Tyrer The Supplement