On a summer evening a gardener's spade slices a telephone cable into distant silence. The resulting disconnection is devastating. With the failure of one call to reach the house, an ambitious young actor becomes the victim of sexual blackmail. The blocking of a second call leads tragically to murder. And when the telephone repairman arrives to mend the broken line, his innocent yet irresistible male beauty has explosive consequences.

In Spadework, Timothy Findley, a master storyteller, has created an electric word-play of infidelity and morality. Spadework tells a story that ripples with ever-widening repercussions, a sensual, witty and completely absorbing novel.