「Sir Wilfred “Wolf” Hadda, son of a Cumbrian woodcutter turned flamboyant tycoon, is in jail on trumped up child abuse charges. Unfortunately for those who framed him, the lengthy sentence gives him time to plan his revenge in detail. Hill’s plotting (with acknowledgements to The Count of Monte Cristo) is brilliant, the jokes first-rate, the prose supple: it’s his humble awe at the power of the English language that enables him to be a minor master of it. 」