Dickens & Clot Investigations Ltd, a detective agency in a waterlogged Madrid, has a couple of unusual specialities: helping distraught authors in search of characters who've quit the page and assumed a life of their own, and taking on Manex Chopeitia, legendary Big Brother of a mighty genetic-engineering company. Carlos Clot-a paunchy, alcoholic private eye gumshoes his way around a drug- and drink-sodden metropolis in a personal quest to put both real' and fictional' people in their place.