Arlo Abbas is broke, between cases, and running out of reasons to get off the couch. A former Metropolitan Police detective turned private investigator, his career has been reduced to odd jobs and an empty fridge. Then £10,000 lands in his bank account from a stranger, and a note appears in his PO Box with three words: Find Sophie Banik. But Sophie Banik is dead—murdered five months ago. No suspects, no family, the case barely cold before it was forgotten. So why is someone paying Arlo to find her?
The answer will pull him underground through London’s tunnels and into the orbit of an organization whose strange experiments blur the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness, between life and death. Sophie’s death wasn’t an ending. It was the beginning of something far stranger. Whoever sent the money didn’t just want Arlo to find Sophie. They wanted him to find what she’d discovered.
Now Arlo must decide how deep he’s willing to dig into the case, the conspiracy, and the parts of his past he’s spent years trying to bury. Because he’s starting to suspect Sophie Banik might not be as dead as everyone thinks.
Nicholas Binge is the bestselling author of Ascension, a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and Dissolution, which Esquire named one of the best books of 2025. He lives and teaches in Edinburgh.
View titles by Nicholas Binge
Arlo Abbas is broke, between cases, and running out of reasons to get off the couch. A former Metropolitan Police detective turned private investigator, his career has been reduced to odd jobs and an empty fridge. Then £10,000 lands in his bank account from a stranger, and a note appears in his PO Box with three words: Find Sophie Banik. But Sophie Banik is dead—murdered five months ago. No suspects, no family, the case barely cold before it was forgotten. So why is someone paying Arlo to find her?
The answer will pull him underground through London’s tunnels and into the orbit of an organization whose strange experiments blur the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness, between life and death. Sophie’s death wasn’t an ending. It was the beginning of something far stranger. Whoever sent the money didn’t just want Arlo to find Sophie. They wanted him to find what she’d discovered.
Now Arlo must decide how deep he’s willing to dig into the case, the conspiracy, and the parts of his past he’s spent years trying to bury. Because he’s starting to suspect Sophie Banik might not be as dead as everyone thinks.
Nicholas Binge is the bestselling author of Ascension, a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and Dissolution, which Esquire named one of the best books of 2025. He lives and teaches in Edinburgh.
View titles by Nicholas Binge
