History Literature / Others

* HeKnowsTooMuch:
** [[spoiler: Elderly midwife Hildegarde Vogel, as well as Dis, although in his absence, Wisbeech’s “beast” brutally murders Henry instead.]]

Viciously mugged on the way home, a thoroughly desolate Dis later sees in his mirror the reflection of a long-dead movie star whose name he can't quite place. A sudden visit from Louise Broomfield, who briefly takes away the pain of his mugging-induced headache, persuades him to consider the Ripstone case. The name of the missing boy's midwife, Hildegarde Vogel, leads Dis to Perfect Rest, a residential care home, one of whose carers, delicate-featured yet similarly deformed Constance Bell, seems strangely intimidated by the home's director, the coolly condescending Dr Leonard K Wisbeech. A nightly visit from numerous severely deformed apparitions heralds a shocking turning point in the troubled life of Nick Dismas…

* BrokenTears: After his mugging on the beach, Dis, bruised, bloodied and devastated with humiliation, Dis returns to his basement flat and sobs unrestrainedly.

A 1999 novel by Creator/JamesHerbert. Alone in a murky, otherworldly cell, a deceased, unnamed man contemplates the depraved past life for which this "existence without hope" is his punishment. Two celestial visitors, dubbed Angel 1 and Angel 2, suddenly arrive with a proposition. He, and "one or two [[TitleDrop others]]" have qualified for a second chance at earthly life. Overcome, he tearfully accepts...

* BrokenTears: Bruised, bloodied and devastated with humiliation, Dis returns to his basement flat and sobs unrestrainedly.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Henry Solomon, bookkeeper for Dismas Investigations, and Ida Lambton, debt collector.

* SnuffFilm: [[spoiler: Secretly filmed footage of copulation between severely deformed patients is used to fund Dr Wisbeech’s studies in deformity. They occasionally include Snuff..]]

* {{Reincarnation}}

* DisabledSnarker: Dis's first person narration is replete with witheringly grim witticisms. With his the bruises of his mugging still in evidence...

-->'''Shelley Ripstone:''' Your poor face!

* DisabledSnarker: Dis's first person narration is replete with witheringly grim witticisms.

* DeadpanSnarker: Dis's first person narration is replete with witheringly grim witticisms.

Thirty-two year-old Brighton-based private investigator Nick Dismas, "Dis" to his friends, is offered a case concerning a missing person; a baby who eighteen years ago apparently died, but whose mother, Shelly Ripstone, now intuitively believes him to be alive, a suspicion endorsed by local clairvoyant Louise Broomfield. Dis, deformed from birth with spinal curvature, an overlapping brow and a withered leg, as well as a missing eye lost in a childhood incident, goes about sundry duties with unflinching reflection on his lifelong rejection and humiliation. Viciously mugged on the way home, a thoroughly desolate Dis later sees in his mirror the reflection of a long-dead movie star whose name he can't quite place. A sudden visit from Louise Broomfield, who briefly takes away the pain of his mugging-induced headache, persuades him to consider the Ripstone case. The name of the missing boy's midwife, Hildegarde Vogel, leads Dis to Perfect Rest, a residential care home, one of whose carers, delicate-featured yet similarly deformed Constance Bell, seems strangely intimidated by the home's director, the coolly condescending Dr Leonard K Wisbeech. A nightly visit from numerous severely deformed apparitions heralds a shocking turning point in the troubled life of Nick Dismas…

** Dis's muggers spitefully address him as "[[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Quozzie]]".

!! "''Well, who the f**k needs the tropes!''":

* BattleAmongstTheFlames: In the rear wing of Perfect Rest, a studio in which Dr Wisbeech allows [[spoiler: production of lavish pornographic films of copulation between his deformed test subjects]], catches fire. On defensive eye injury from Dis, [[spoiler: Wisbeech's ferociously powerful, insanely vicious "beast"]] pursues Nick in search of revenge, and hinders the escape of Dis and Constance.

** Dis's muggers spitefully address him as "[[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Quozzie]]"

* PetTheDog: The unnamed movie star, from [[spoiler: Dis]] is reincarnated, while an unashamedly ruthless, selfish, unscrupulous hedonist, had a blindness-threatened young boy flown to New York for surgery.

* ThereAreNoCoincidences: Louise believes Shelley's recommendation to Dismas Investigations to hint Dis's innate vocation to take the case. On so doing, he reveals [[spoiler: Perfect Rest's inhumane confinement of numerous severely deformed people]]. On a near-drowning in the nearby river, a sudden memory of his previous life indicates [[spoiler: his bodily inhibitions, and rescue of others with similar affliction, to be part of a redemptive test]].

** A ferociously powerful, insanely vicious deformed man, known only as "the beast," is directed by [[spoiler: Wisbeech]] to murder [[spoiler: Dis]], but instead finds [[spoiler: Henry]].

* BattleAmongTheFlames: In the rear wing of Perfect Rest, a studio in which Dr Wisbeech allows [[spoiler: production of lavish pornographic films of copulation between his deformed test subjects]], catches fire. On defensive eye injury from Dis, [[spoiler: Wisbeech's ferociously powerful, insanely vicious "beast"]] pursues Nick in search of revenge, and hinders the escape of Dis and Constance.

* MamaBear: Despite [[spoiler: a fire raging through Perfect Rest]], Constance is determined to save Michael, a deformed patient in her care; Dis just as much so.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: [[spoiler: Elderly midwife Hildegarde Vogel, as well as Dis, although in his absence, Wisbeech’s “beast” brutally murders Henry instead.]]

* RapeAsDrama: When Dis was eleven, a "pervert, who wanted sex with a freak" tried to molest him.

* AxeCrazy: Beneath the wing of Perfect Rest which holds numerous [[spoiler: severely deformed youths and children]] are inmates known simply as "[[TitleDrop others]]": [[spoiler: severely people who also happen to be homicidally insane]].