Prentis, senior clerk in the "dead crimes" department of police archives, is becoming more and more confused. Alienated from his wife and children, and obsessed by his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, Prentis feels increasingly unsettled as his enigmatic boss, Mr Quinn, turns his investigation towards him - and his father. Gradually Prentis suspects that his father"s breakdown and Quinn"s menacing behaviour are connected and the link is to be found in his father"s memoirs, "Shuttlecock". "Excellent, profound" - Alan Hollinghurst, "London Review of Books". "An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour" - "Sunday Times". "A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession" - "Daily Telegraph". "Swift"s central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story and character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour - "Shuttlecock" is thoroughly and beautifully odd - always honours them" - "Times Literary Supplement". "Serious, moving and often very funny indeed" - "Observer".