Thomas Quinn is having the strangest autumn. Nine years ago, his mentor Andrew Black wrote a million-copy-selling mystery novel - and then disappeared. Now could it be that Thomas is being stalked by the hero of Black's book? And that new answerphone message sounds a lot like his own father. His father who has been dead for years. With the same white-knuckle thrills as Hall's first novel, The Raw Shark Texts, Maxwell's Demon is a freewheeling investigation into the magic power locked inside the alphabet, love through the looking glass, the bond between parents and children, and, at its heart, the quest for meaning in a chaotic and untidy world.