The Lonely Silver Rain is in a sense the belated sequel to Pale Gray for Guilt (1968), although to explain how would spoil the novel's end. It also continues a long-term development of McGee's character that begins with The Empty Copper Sea (1978). In fashion recognizable throughout literary tradition, McGee as the satiric observer of society begins himself to exhibit comparable flaws. Throughout the past five novels, there is increasing attention paid to the hollow quality of McGee's life; in a bold departure from series and character convention, McGee is visibly aging, and his bachelor existence seems less like an attractive fantasy and more like a sort of psychological — even spiritual — emptiness of its own. At the same time the world of the novels becomes more threatening: The hope extended at the end of The Empty Copper Sea is snatched away at the beginning of the...