A Shock to the System (novel)

Macmillan

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A Shock to the System is a 1984 black comedy novel by Simon Brett. The novel was adapted into the 1990 film of the same name starring Michael Caine.

Plot

Graham Marshall, the protagonist, is a rising executive at a London based oil conglomerate, and has always played by the rules. But Graham is passed over for promotion, losing out to a younger colleague called Robert Benham. On his way home that night, he lashes out at an aged tramp who harasses him, killing him, and dumps the body in the

. When it becomes clear that he has got away with this murder, Graham begins to feel a new power and murders his wife by booby-trapping an electric switch. Next, he sets a boating booby-trap for Robert, and fakes a suicide to dispose of a possible witness. Eventually he gets arrested for a murder he did not actually commit, as a consequence of a revenge-plot of his mother-in-law.

Critical reception

One review considered this ending to be "awfully contrived"^[1] but the novel was described as "extra-dry in its humor" and "ever so restrained in its melodrama".

References