A Review by Ruth Hunter of Bertrams

This combines the best themes of Litt’s previous novels ‘Corpsing’ and ‘Hospital’, in that it focuses on a personal investigation into a crime, and also involves the sometimes bizarre inner workings of hospital, Guy’s in London to be precise. A couple, Kumiko (a Japanese artist) and Skelton (a session guitarist) are travelling into London one evening when they both spot a human heart being thrown from another window of their train. This begins a dual investigation into where the heart came from, who threw it, and why. As Kumiko and Skelton split up that very day, they each look into the matter separately, occasionally crossing each other’s paths. Each tells their own story in alternating chapters, giving two sometimes very different accounts of the same events. With a plot including Keats, pop stars, poker and performance art, it’s a complex story which should appeal to both fans of literary and crime fiction.