Once upon a time Robert Moore, lead singer with the legendary Honeys, was front-page news. Then, when the band couldn't cut it in America, he faded into the kind of celebrity people recognise but can't put a name to. And now, having just been struck by a bolt of lightning meant for someone else, he's plain old dead.

But if he can explain his life to Maigret, the Lucky Strike smoking, whisky-drinking divine umpire of the afterlife . . . if he can explain about lightning girl and her sexy drugged up sister, about love and failure and hurt and fear, and about a talking dog called Biscuit . . . if he can only tell the story of a heart in conflict with itself, he might just be allowed to return to the sweet melancholy that is life.

Left on the table at the monthly Melbourne meeting