This book marked a rather a disappointing end to Anthony Burgess's Malayan Trilogy after its two entertaining predecessors, [Time for a Tiger] and [The Enemy in the Blanket].

Victor Crabbe is still there, now divorced from his second wife, the gorgeous Fenella, and serving as Education Officer for the governing administration. In that capacity he has found a protege, the graceless, surly and ungrateful Robert Loo, who despite his personal deficiencies shows clear signs of considerable talent, maybe even genius, as a composer. Her, of course, we are straying into turf with which Burgess was familiar. Now renowned as one of the leading literary authors of his generation he was also an accomplished composer himself. Unfortunately, Crabbe's encouragement for Robert is grievously misinterpreted by onlookers, and vicious though unfounded rumours abound.

Meanwhile, as Malaya draws closer to independence racial tensions between the indigenous Malays and the Indian, Tamil and Muslim communities are stretched to breaking point. The long day of western colonial rule is indeed waning, but there is little certainty as to what will happen when the final withdrawal takes place.

Burgess handles all of this deftly but somehow he forgot that accurately observed context is seldom enough to sustain a novel and that a plausible plot and empathetic characters are also essential. I had hoped to be able to write about a triumphant conclusion to an engaging saga but I feel that someone, somewhere, sold me a dummy with this book. ( )