Nick Owchar of the Vancouver Sun offers a review of the new novel by Nicola Barker, Darkmans, which tells the story of "a long-dead king's jester, a precocious child and the debris of history that keeps floating to the surface."

The novel deals with the search for John Scogin, jester to Edward IV, a project undertaken by the book's main character, Beede, a hospital laundry supervisor, who has a young son grieving for his dead mother. There is, however, a supernatural element.

From the review:

"It takes us to present-day Ashford in Kent, a city that is 'a fantastic contradiction' of clashing identities. In a landscape dominated by suburban development and strip malls, "at its centre," Barker writes, 'beats this tiny, perfect, medieval heart.'"