Lorna Martin has always had an extremely - almost unhealthily - close relationship with her brother, Bob. But now Bob has returned home from living in Malaya, mysteriously closed-off and listless, and he is no longer telling Lorna his secrets. He keeps odd hours, he refuses to tell her where he's been, and gradually Lorna begins to suspect he has a terrible secret.

It wasn't just the main subject matter of the book that was disturbing. Lorna and Bob are mirrored by other dependent relationships, and the book is full of foul smells, filthy houses, disgusting food and sickly patients (Lorna is a doctor). I found this, in the end, overkill - it's one thing to have an atmosphere of menace or of decay, but there was just too much that was disgusting. ( )