This is a detective story. The story of an unsolved murder with multiple twists is quite banal, but it is the way the narrator tells the story that gives the novel its full interest. He presents his work as the log of a failed writer who seeks inspiration from his mentor and who finds himself propelled to the heart of this rather sordid history, which will provide the raw material to a success bookstore. The style is sometimes quite surprising, the author seems to mock American society. The themes of inspiration, of lies, of the unspoken, pretenses are omnipresent. The characters are pretty small in their attitudes which makes the story credible enough. This is a good beach novel that reads very easily in a week.