Michael Marshall Smith's first novel, published in 1994. It's a mix of science fiction, horror and fantasy, but delves a bit deeper than that, I think. It won the 1995 British Fantasy
August Derleth Award for Best Novel.
On the first pages of some printings of the book is a quote from
Tori Amos's song
Silent All These Years. The printing of the quote was later pulled because he didn't actually receive permission to use it, though.
But what if I'm a mermaid
In these jeans of his with
Her name still on them
Hey but I don't care 'cos sometimes
I said sometimes
I hear my voice and it's been
Here, silent all these years.
When questioned on this, Michael's response was that he listened to
Little Earthquakes over and over on repeat while writing this book, and so the album itself seeped into his writing. The lyrics of
Silent All These Years reflect
Stark's (the main character) personality, in how he had hidden his true voice and history of himself for such a long time.