Daniel Ellis, a mid-level Yorkshire writer, lives with his lukewarm partner Mina. After reading a brief encyclopedia entry on author Edward Vaughans an obsessive investigation of the author's life and works is started, empowered by the similarity of the pair's writing. This obsession goes from charmingly parochial to dangerously intrusive as elements of the arcane-infatuated Vaughan's life are uncovered that were best left fallow. The pace of the tale is like a snowball pushed downhill, the deceptively modest start building up speed and mass as it rolls. Powerful and unusual events gather around this humble core to construct a story of scope and vision, as intricate as a snowflake, the domestic start highlighting exactly how unusual and perilous these events are to an everyday-man like Daniel Ellis.

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