Last Rights

US: Headline Publishing Group, 2005. Paperback. Good. Francis H is an undertaker in the London Borough of West Ham in the 1940s. The Second World War is in full swing and the Borough is being pounded on a nightly basis by the German Luftwaffe. Francis H is a World War 1 veteran so he also has to deal with the continuing fears and delusions that still h aunt him from the trenches of Flanders. One night, in the middle of a raid, Francis meets what appears to be a madman running across the rubble scream ing about being stabbed. But Francis can see no sign of blood on the man, s o he passes him by. However, two days later the man's body turns up at Fran cis' parlour. So begins a frightening sequence of events that has Francis H pitted against violent thugs, an almost impenetrable network of secrets an d his own fragile sanity.