"Audition or die." Delivered by a trio of psychotic clowns, this ultimatum plunges Jamie into the horrible alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between hell and earth from which humankind's greatest tragedies have originated. Yet, in this place--peopled by the gruesome, grotesque, and monstrous--where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself. When he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And JJ wants Jamie dead . . .

Will Elliot's debut novel won the inaugural ABC Fiction Award and went on to be awarded two of Australia's most coveted genre accolades—the Ditmar and the Golden Aurealis. It was also short-listed for the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel.