Miles Gibson's cult novel from 1984 returns to print with a new preface by the author. Growing up in a small hotel in a shabby seaside town, lonely William 'Mackerel' Burton amuses himself by perfecting his conjuring tricks. In adult life his magic turns lethal as he stalks the streets of London - the butcher in rubber gloves, the acrobat called Death. He is the Sandman. 'A splendidly macabre achievement... As an account of descent into homicidal mania it has seldom been bettered.' Time Out 'Unspeakable acts are reported with an unwavering reasonableness essential to the comic impact...' Times Literary Supplement 'Written by a virtuoso - it luxuriates in death with a Jacobean fervour.' Sydney Morning Herald