Grafton's strength is in capturing the generally aimless, moment-to-moment life of the criminal world. One truly inspired paragraph notes how criminals, artists, and bohemian-types are united in their hatred of society, and demonstrate that hatred by refusing to live according to the same clock as the straight world. Staying with Kay and a few other criminal boarders, Dan is dumbfounded when one woman starts roasting a turkey late one afternoon for no particular reason.