The blue book

Elizabeth Barber is crossing the Atlantic by liner with her perfectly adequate boyfriend, Derek, who might be planning to propose. In fleeing the UK -- temporarily -- Elizabeth may also be in flight from her past and the charismatic Arthur, once her partner in what she came to see as a series of crimes. Together they acted as fake mediums, perfecting the arcane skills practiced by effective frauds.

Elizabeth finally rejected what once seemed an intoxicating game. Arthur continued his search for the right way to do wrong. He now subsidizes free closure for the traumatized and dispossessed by preying on the super-rich. The pair still meet occasionally, for weekends of sexual oblivion, but their affection lacerates as much as it consoles.

Elizabeth hadn't, however, expected the other man on the boat. As her voyage progresses, Elizabeth's past is revealed, and codes slowly form and break as communication deepens. It's time for her to discover who are the true deceivers and who are the truly deceived.

But is the book itself -- a fiction which may not always be lying -- deceiving the reader? Offering illusions and false trails, magical numbers and redemptive humour, this is a novel about what happens when we are misled and when we are true: an extraordinarily intricate and intimate journey into our minds and hearts undertaken by a writer of great gifts -- a maker of wonders.