Maxwell's Demon

'Ingeniously plotted and compulsively well-paced' Sunday Times 'A cracking detective story that seems to be investigating its own existence' Jeff Noon 'Are you there, Tom?' I stood in the doorway, staring at the phone. My father had been dead for almost seven years. When Thomas Quinn receives a seemingly impossible voice message, he can't help but wonder if Andrew Black – a legendary, reclusive mystery writer and his father's protégé – is somehow involved. Thomas knows that Black can't be trusted, that he should be avoided at all costs. But as the search for answers spirals into an examination of the nature of time, entropy, the true forms of angels, fictional stalkers and the secrets of the nativity set . . . Thomas realises that he might not have a choice. "This autumn, life is catching up with Thomas Quinn. Five years ago, his sometime friend Andrew Black wrote a mystery novel that sold a million copies and then disappeared. Now could it be that Quinn is being stalked by the hero of Black's book? His wife, Imogen, usually has the answers but she's working on the other side of the world and talking to her on webcam just isn't the same. Quinn finds himself in a world that might well be coming apart at the seams. If he can find Black, he might start finding answers. Maxwell's Demon forges an entirely new blend of mystery--somewhere between detective fiction, ghost story and philosophical quest. With the same white-knuckle thrills as Hall's first novel, The Raw Shark Texts, this new book is also a freewheeling investigation into the magic power locked inside the alphabet, love through the looking glass, the bond between parents and children and, at its heart, the quest for meaning in a world that, with each passing season, seems to become more chaotic and untidy."--Provided by publisher The absurdly brilliant and mind-twisting second novel from Steven Hall, author of the acclaimed The Raw Shark Texts