In Malachy Kitchen, a disgraced intelligence officer, veteran thriller writer Seymour has created one of his most interesting and memorable characters. An accusation of cowardice in the field has sent Malachy on a downward spiral; now he's destitute, living in a hovel side by side with drug dealers and other down-and-outers. When an elderly woman, his only friend, is mugged, Malachy must drag himself out of his hole, reconnect with his past, and track down the drug-network chieftain responsible. Seymour gives us two stories to follow: Malachy's pursuit of drug lord Ricky Capel and the saga of his gradual personal redemption. The pursuit story is intricate and suspenseful, as Seymour's many fans have come to expect; in the redemption story, he nimbly avoids most of the cliches associated with the type (it's probably not possible to avoid them all). A thriller with a human side.