Just Rape / Trentishoe (ePub)

Judging from his spanking new CV, M. is one of the blessed of 80s Britain, a good looking working class lad who is set fair to achieve great things.
He's starting a splendid new job as an estate agent in central London, at the very time that property is booming, and he has an appropriately splendid up market girlfriend to accompany his rise.
But his CV omits the ominous fact that M. himself is not keen on his bright future. He sorely regrets losing his comfortable matey past, and he is deeply afraid of the responsibilities success will bring.
Fact is, if it wasn't for the exhortations of his mother and his girlfriend, he would slack off. But these two women form a formidable team, even though their enthusiasm for his advancement is the only thing they have in common, and he feels that he has no choice but to go forward.
And his life quickly takes a turn for the worst.
No sooner does he sell his first house than he begins behaving peculiarly towards women. First fairly harmlessly, with a girl he accidentally picks up in a pub, then more recklessly with a stranger he sees in the street and fancies.
It's obvious that his waywardness is going to get worse, since his work always gives him easy access to young women's flats. He needs help if he is to stop.
But his mother and girlfriend are too pleased by his success to interpret his faults.
His father spends his time working blindly on the bizarre jigsaw puzzles that have been his obsession ever since his own foray into property floundered in disaster years earlier.
And the two detectives assigned to his case are hampered by sexual problems of their own.