Judge Savage

Promoted young to the position of Crown Court Judge - because of his ability, because of the political convenience of promoting a man with coloured skin - it's time for Daniel Savage to settle down.

Perhaps his marriage is happy enough after all. Teenage children require a father's attention. His career demands the most responsible behaviour. Day by day, Judge Savage presides over those whose double lives have been exposed.

He must be above suspicion. But the passage from complexity to simplicity eludes him.

Why does his daughter refuse to move to the spacious new house he and his wife have bought?

Why does a young Korean woman keep phoning him to beg for help?

As the most tangled lives are ironed out in court, Daniel Savage's own existence descends into a mess of violence and confusion.

The solid English society, of which his public school background ironically makes him the representative, has fragmented into an incomprehensible public gallery where every face conceals a different culture. And these with whom we have the greatest intimacy are suddenly the most frighteningly mysterious. A hero by chance only to be overwhelmed with disgrace, Daniel Savage's attempt to keep some kind of grip on the world will keep the reader in a torment of tension to the last page.

At the same time, the sense of recognition is overwhelming.

This is the feverish disorientation of the modern city street.