Novels sometimes contain scenes that, while remaining a credible part of the narrative, also seem to point past the immediate fictional situation to the book in which they appear. One such moment in the fiction of Peter Lovesey is a scene in Mad Hatter's Holiday (1973). Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray are on their way down from London to Brighton to look into an especially grisly murder. Thackeray is eager to see the famous Brighton pier, but Cribb tells him:

I want you to make sure you get a look at that pier you're talking about. There's two of 'em where we're going, paper-doily things, with fancy iron-work all white and smelling of fresh paint. When you've had your eyeful of the scrubbed decks and the dapper little buildings, take a look underneath, right under the pier. I'll tell you what you'll see. Girders festering with barnacles. Slime and...