The man with the ivory ear - D. S. McDonough

The Man with the Ivory Earis a fast-paced and earthy thriller in which several plots intertwine to form an original story. Woodhouse, a battle scarred SIS operative, is tasked tofind a stealth helicopter which has been stolen from an American airbase by the psychic eponymous villain. Woodhouse is hampered, however, by recurring headaches,attempts on his life and bewildering flashbacks to traumatic childhood occurrences like 'Badger-gate' and 'The Birds and the Bees'.

In a cat pottery in rural Norfolk, meanwhile, Cubby, an overweight youth in unrequited love with a girl from a nearby bakery, has accidentally created a ceramic feline with anunmistakable resemblance to Adolf Hitler. This cat (the Cat-Fhrer), which may or may not be a reincarnation of the Nazi despot, possesses the mind of Gruber, a timid legalassistant, and begins to direct his actions to increasingly disturbing ends. And after the young Woodhouse's mother suffers a nervous breakdown post 'Badger-gate', and hisfather retreats into an invented 'Northern' persona, the boy is sent to a strict boarding school, setting in motion a chain of events that will ultimately lead to tragedy.

The world in whichThe Man with the Ivory Eartakes place is as our own but the supernatural is more commonplace and the characters more used to dealing with unusualgoings on. Themes of love, loss, guilt and obsession are obliquely examined by a narrator as pleasingly fluctuant as his characters. The book will be enjoyed by readers wholike the unexpected and for characters to act out of turn.