Captain William Gilbert

Garnet and Petunia The Matinee Idol Captain William Gilbert

Filippo, the faded Italian film star, a super-successful, cynical, Hollywood producer and a mysterious woman are up to something; a British civil servant wants someone to find her missing, much younger wife; a Jewish businessman's daughter has been found with her throat slashed; a high-profile, Iranian strip club owner's American car has been found abandoned and splattered with blood; and a South London gangster has been found in a Bangkok red light district with some of his genitals missing, wearing surprisingly high-end lingerie, and Garnet is under pressure from his nemesis in the Eastend underworld, doing the South Londoners a favour, to get it solved or his partner, Petunia, will not be so beautiful for much longer. Garnet and Petunia wade through the expatriate flotsam which fills the neon-lit streets of Bangkok's tourist districts, doing their best to help the Thai police solve the irritating crises which the foreign population causes, identifying victims and finding guilty parties.