Spun from the most prosaic of beginnings, this tale of a Scots accountant, up and about in Paris and Glasgow, takes the reader out of the realm of fair and reasonable behaviour, behind a veneer of the finest quality, and into a life where the unexpected becomes standard. H. Jay Hamilton combines a Protestant work ethic with a considerable volume of non-vocational overtime in his ruthless career. Deftly keeping the macabre at arm's length, this comedy of errors guides the reader through Hamilton's illegal inventory of idle adventures without recourse to sensationalism or lurid illustration. Charles Moore Wilson lives in good company in central Paris, near the Parc Monceau. Paradise Missed is his second novel. He has also published a collection of inter-related chronicles, The False Cape Horn.