The Gold Hole by Jeff Nuttall (Quartet, 1978) 1st. ed.

An astonishing tour de force of a novel, a complex, hard-hitting story which weaves its way between separate but interconnecting themes: a couple picking up the pieces of their shattered love affair; a series of gruesome child murders; an abortion; and throughout the shadow of the police and Detective Sergeant Phillips and the spectre of the man with red hair, whose role is enigmatic but crucial. The couple are Sam and Jaz, and one of Sam's poems to her is found near the scene of one of the murders. The police are after Sam, who is already in flight mentally anyway, using drugs and women as he tries to puzzle out what has gone wrong in his relations with those around him - his mother, Jaz, and now the law.\n\nIn prose and verse the author uses his words with an earthy power reminiscent of Miller or Burroughs. But there similiarity ends: The Gold Hole is a highly individual work of genius.