‘There’s no money in Margate,’ Seabrook writes of the Thanet resort (then yet to enjoy the green shoots of gentrification seeded by the Turner Contemporary, completed in 2011). Eliot’s The Waste Land – part written in Margate after a nervous breakdown – as the poem’s discordancy, its ‘heap of broken images’, is echoed in the digressiveness, twitchiness and paranoia of Seabrook’s noirish prose like the sound of the tide in the promenade toilets. It’s fitting that it should start with the story behind T.S. I feel like I’ve been reading it forever.Granta have republished David Seabrook’s 2002 debut and cult classic All the Devils Are Here, a gothic mapping of coastal Kent’s uneasy psychogeography. I can’t believe I only have one more book until I’m caught up with this series. He can have my father and I’ll take his END SPOILERS. He didn’t once try to ask his father about it? Instead, he’s like, my father hates me, against all fucking common sense? He’s an idiot and an asshole. This will all be spoilers. SPOILERS He made me so angry! You have a loving and kind father who is there for you, and spend your life hating him because you overheard a conversation that you misunderstood one night when you were eight? Give me a fucking break. The only thing that I didn’t like was the sub-plot with Daniel.

Also, the twists and turns, unlike the last couple of books, were much more plausible. I read this book very quickly, because it was twisty and turny and had high emotional stakes. The investigation opens up a can of worms for the entire Gamache extended family.

Then, a body is found in Stephen’s apartment while he remains in critical condition at the hospital. After a family dinner, Stephen is hit by a car, and everyone who witnessed it is convinced it was done on purpose. We met Stephen last book (and maybe before that, who even knows), but I didn’t quite catch on that he was basically a millionaire. Also in attendance for the birth is Gamache’s godfather, who along with his adoptive grandmother, basically raised Gamache after his parents died. The Gamache’s other son Daniel, who I dislike, also lives in Paris with his family. Gamache and Reine-Marie are in Paris because Annie and Beauvoir’s baby is coming, and they want to be there for the birth (they moved to Paris last book, if you recall). This book featured an implausibly large conspiracy, and I didn’t even think to complain about it once!

It feels like Penny is getting her groove back. This was a major improvement on the last few books.

Review of all the devils are here