AustLit

'Julian Halls has created an unlikely assortment of oddball characters ... and placed them in and around a mouldering, half-forgotten regional museum in Tasmania.

'The complex main plot concerns the relationships between two same-sex couples, one male, one female, and the whole thing is set in motion by a blowfly; it gets even more bizarre after that, although it's never incredible - just like real life.

'Several curious sub-plots emerge and they are skillfully woven into a surprising conclusion. The story is replete with intrigue, passion and downright skulduggery, as well as the finely observed petty tyrannies and bureaucratic absurdities of life in a museum.

'A central theme is that things are never what they seem to be; questions of forgery and authenticity are the mainsprings of the novel, and they apply as much to the people as to the exhibits in the museum.' (Publisher's blurb)