Shaking Hands With the Devil

Clifton Gentle is an ordinary man without much to distinguish him. Not much, that is, apart from being a serial killer who is leaving bits of his young male victims scattered around North London. DCI Dave Hicks is the larger than life policeman determined to catch him. His attempts to find 'the nutter' through a combination of spoonerisms, personal abuse and a belief that something will turn up don't go well. All that turns up are yet more body parts. In a sleazy London dogged by growing squalor and an IRA bombing campaign in the last days of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, the gruesome murders spur an over-the-top media and merchandising frenzy. The hunt becomes an increasingly personal one and a race against the clock as Clifton, Dave Hicks, a would-be victim, and a copycat killer each try to uncover what - or who - they hold responsible for their own problems.