Armadillo

A Novel

On a cold winter's morning, Lorimer Black, an insurance adjustor -- young, good-looking, on the rise -- goes to keep a perfectly ordinary appointment only to find a hanged man.

His life is about to be turned upside down and in directions he never imagined. The elements at play: A beautiful actress with whom he finds himself falling in love after a quick glimpse of her in a passing taxi ... an odd, new, business associate whose hiring, firing and rehiring make little sense ... a rock musician whose loss -- in this case of his mind -- may be "adjusted" by the insurance company. What ties it all together: a web of fraud in which virtually everyone he knows is somewhat involved, a web in which he finds himself being increasingly entangled.
"Darkly comic"
--Booklist

"Everything good fiction should be...It begins with a jolt...and then goes on to become even
better"        
--David Nicholson, Washington Post

"A satirical noir...probing, droll, and full of rewards"        
--Ben Greenman, Time Out

"A real page-turner"
--The Observer, London

"Zesty & brilliantly on-target...Lorimer's adventures have enough of an alarming edge to keep a reader constantly, and delightedly, off balance"        
--Publishers Weekly
© Trevor Leighton
WILLIAM BOYD was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the award-winning author of seventeen highly acclaimed novels and five collections of stories. He divides his time between London and France. View titles by William Boyd

About

On a cold winter's morning, Lorimer Black, an insurance adjustor -- young, good-looking, on the rise -- goes to keep a perfectly ordinary appointment only to find a hanged man.

His life is about to be turned upside down and in directions he never imagined. The elements at play: A beautiful actress with whom he finds himself falling in love after a quick glimpse of her in a passing taxi ... an odd, new, business associate whose hiring, firing and rehiring make little sense ... a rock musician whose loss -- in this case of his mind -- may be "adjusted" by the insurance company. What ties it all together: a web of fraud in which virtually everyone he knows is somewhat involved, a web in which he finds himself being increasingly entangled.

Reviews

"Darkly comic"
--Booklist

"Everything good fiction should be...It begins with a jolt...and then goes on to become even
better"        
--David Nicholson, Washington Post

"A satirical noir...probing, droll, and full of rewards"        
--Ben Greenman, Time Out

"A real page-turner"
--The Observer, London

"Zesty & brilliantly on-target...Lorimer's adventures have enough of an alarming edge to keep a reader constantly, and delightedly, off balance"        
--Publishers Weekly

Author

© Trevor Leighton
WILLIAM BOYD was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the award-winning author of seventeen highly acclaimed novels and five collections of stories. He divides his time between London and France. View titles by William Boyd