“The things we do pile up on us, weigh us down. Or hold us in place, at very least.”

There are series characters that are put through the wringer mentally and physically specifically to titillate the reader, Lew Griffin is not one of them. When James Sallis decides to have Lew go in to the dark places of the soul with the distinct possibility that he will not emerge unharmed it is written with such skill, heart and precision that it represents the natural progression for the character, and when Griffin is beaten, shot, stabbed etc. it is not the harmless pain that seems to befall our action heroes who can shrug off physical torture with a few witty quips instead he spends an awful lot of time recuperating, he puts himself in to these positions time and time again, knowing that he could die but not caring, drawn to the lifestyle he has struggled to leave behind like the moth to the flame.

That casual use of the title of this second Lew Griffin novel was deliberate of course, and it is not just a reference to the behaviour of the protagonist, the theme is repeated through the lives of several characters involved in the main investigation in to the whereabouts of a long lost daughter of an old flame. Sallis is demonstrating that each human animal is drawn in one direction and whilst some of us think we're flying away from an undesirable end the reality is that more often than not we cannot escape the glowing blue light in the fast food kitchen of life.

Once more throughout a brief easy to read novel James Sallis demonstrates his abilities as an intelligent writer sensitive to the world around him, creating a special noir protagonist and fully realised support characters all the while taking the reader on a philosophical journey. He really is an unsung genius of modern crime writing.