The supernatural, if not demoniacally sinister, overtones in the terms “ghost” writer and “human research,” which Dougal uses for his enterprise, are associated with the novel’s other two main connected themes: the interrelation in life of the mysterious and commonplace, and of the religious and the materialistic realms. The novel’s opening chapter barrages the reader with a series of puzzling questions begetting a mysterious aura: Why did Humphrey jilt Dixie? Who is this Dougal Douglas whom people like or dislike so intensely? What did he have to do with the jilting? Why did Humphrey stay at the honeymoon hotel suite alone, even after calling off the marriage? Why did he return? What sort of firm is Meadows Meade? Why did the people listed as unaware of the new development of Humphrey’s return not hear about it? Like the intrusion of Dougal into people’s lives for such an innocuous reason as collecting data for a book, the inherent mystery in life and within the depths of human beings may at any time suddenly appear, however much these mysteries have been repressed. The recurrently mentioned tunnel being excavated from the Peckham police station to Nunhead symbolizes the dark depths of personality which many characters have avoided dealing with, as well as Dougal’s tunneling into their lives. Additionally, like Spark’s novelistic plotting, the tunnel does not in fact end where first supposed.