Murray Whelan is at his richly futile best in this romantic comedy and drop-dead thriller. The Brush-Off begins, amid uncertain circumstances, on the 'last Friday in January 1989, the stinking hot end of an overheated decade'. In the sweltering heat Murray fears he is about to be fired from his job as ministerial adviser to the mercurial Angelo Agnelli MP. But he is also looking forward to a rare access visit from his ten-year-old son Red.

Murray doesn't know that by the time the weekend is over he'll have more than a new job and new respect for his son. He'll have found himself drinking chardonnay in the small hours of the morning with Salina Fleet, and thinking about kissing her apricot lips. In the dead of night he'll have seen a body fished out of the ornamental moat outside the art gallery. He'll have met Brian Eastlake, the self-made millionaire and art patron, whose driver, Spider Webb, scares Murray more than he can admit. As he navigates his way through high art and low blows, Murray will be brushed-off and put upon. And the strangest thing is, by the time the weekend is over, Murray Whelan will be in love.