It touches all our lives; our triumphs and tragedies, our proudest achievements, our most traumatic disasters. Alloyed of love and fear, death and fire and the inscrutable acts of the gods, insurance is indeed the force that binds the universe together.

Hardly surprising, therefore, that Frank Carpenter, one of the foremost magical practitioners of our age, felt himself irresistibly drawn to it. Until, that is, he met Emily, a high-flying corporate heroine with an annoying habit of falling out of trees and getting killed. Repeatedly.

It's not long before Frank and Jane find themselves face to face with the greatest enigma of our times: When is a door not a door? When it's a mousetrap.

Reviews

• ‘Inventively entertaining…make you both laugh out loud and stop and think’ SFX
• Praise forTom Holt: 'Wacky humour bubbles through the polished narrative … Holt doesn't skimp on the flashes of brilliance' SFX, 'Uniquely twisted … cracking gags' Rob Grant, The Guardian, 'Frantically wacky and wilfully confusing … gratifyingly clever and very amusing' Mail on Sunday, 'Frothy, fast and funny' Scotland on Sunday, 'Dazzling' Time Out

Hardback

Published 01/05/2008