Alice Thomas Ellis

When a body is discovered in the Regents Canal, the local residents vaguely wonder if it might belong to their missing neighbour Barbs, but none of them quite get round to doing anything about it. While Scarlett is preoccupied with her uptight husband Brian and her adolescent daughter Camille, Connie is wondering whether her lover Memet is being unfaithful to her. As the two women gossip and wryly comment on everything from advertising and the press, psychiatrists and school systems to nutrition cranks, the lives of both families are turned on their heads as the do-gooder Barbs' whereabouts remain unknown.