Literary great Beryl Bainbridge’s final novel is a double murder mystery set in America in 1968.
It is loosely inspired by the investigation into the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in which a girl in a polka dot dress become an enigmatic figure. It begins as Rose and a man she only knows as ‘Washington Harold’ travel around America in a camper van, searching for the charismatic and elusive Doctor Wheeler, a man who Rose credits with rescuing her from a terrible childhood, and against whom Harold nurses a grudge.
Beryl Bainbridge wrote 17 novels, five that were nominated for the Booker Prize. Her novel An Awfully Big Adventure was adapted into a film starring Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant.