Someone has stolen Patrick Balfour's identity. A successful headmaster of a London school, a regular broadcaster and a writer of historical novels, as well as having a fairly spicy private life, Balfour is the object of some unsurprising envy. Yet who would be so malicious as to commit identity fraud and frame Patrick as a thief and a paedophile, using his national insurance number and impersonating his handwriting? As Patrick is teased by a series of letters, it becomes apparent that his adversary is certainly better-read than him and he is sent off on a tense literary chase, picking up clues from Kafka's The Trial to R L Stevenson and to Joseph Clark, a 17th Century contortionist. Patrick's morale begins to collapse - the police don't believe him and his daughter rejects him. Desperate, he decides he must pursue his pursuer.
- ISBN10 0349118930
- ISBN13 9780349118932
- Publish Date 7 July 2005 (first published 19 August 2004)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 5 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Imprint Abacus
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 384
- Language English