Investigating Mr. Wakefield

London photographer Jack Connolly, the narrator of this discursive novel of obsession from British author Gittins (Gimmie Shelter), has lived by the mantra that the only thing that matters is the truth, ever since his promising career was derailed by a manipulated photo that briefly made a suicidal soldier look like a hero. Jack’s initial doubts about the fidelity of his lover, Tia, coincide with his first visit to a store specializing in surveillance gadgets. Meanwhile, he remembers a story he once read by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Wakefield,” in which a man leaves his wife only to observe her unseen and unknown for 20 years. A head-on collision between two trains outside London provides Jack the opportunity to contrive his own disappearance so he can monitor Tia’s behavior while he’s presumed dead or missing. Bizarre complications follow as Gittins plays variations on the theme of spying on another person and interpreting that person’s actions. Some reader may sign off well before the end. (Dec.)