Beyond the Sad-Faced Clown

It is the 'Swinging Sixties', but not quite everyone is swinging... When Nick Andrews and Rebecca Dahlman are thrown together at university, they find they are perfect opposites. Nick was raised on the mean streets of Birmingham. He is paralysed by working-class hang-ups and has learned to fight his way out of trouble in the desolate freezer stations of Iceland. Rebecca comes from money but has been mentally scarred by an abusive family friend. Despite their mutual attraction, there seems little chance that things could work out for them. Just when the tender shoots of mutual love and trust are taking root, Rebecca's life is thrown into chaos by the machinations of her former abuser and his scheming doctor wife. With Nick facing the impending death of his mother - and being such a loose cannon - can Rebecca ever trust him with the truth emerging from her past? Events soon overtake her and the novel builds to an explosive finale where revenge would seem to be the only answer.