George Harvey Bone has an obsession with the pretty small-time actress Netta. He also drinks heavily and suffers from 'dark' moods, where he enters a trance-like state and can't remember what has happened. Throw Netta's often-cruel treatment of him into the mix, and drama beckons.

Patrick Hamilton's best-known novel, which is thought to have autobiographical aspects, is an in turn shocking and touching tale of unrequited love and just-desserts. Lonely George is driven to the brink by a combination of Drink, psychological disorder and obsession, although a reader cannot help but feel sympathy for him.