Commentary/review

People seem to classify this story under “crime novels” but for me it is a textbook example of noir fiction. It is perhaps a little Gothic. The book is rather short but the story is long and complex. Nina Bawden chose her words well to bring in the atmosphere of imbalance, insecurity and wickedness. Everyone is lying, to themselves and to others. I suppose that we, the commonly inclined readers, are capable of finishing the book because of how the main character, the first-person narrator is portrayed. Will Hart feels too much but does not think too much, incredibly rare for a lawyer. He also has a superhuman ability to imagine how things happened and how everyone involved had felt. Yet, even though Will feels so strongly, he is not a coward. Perhaps because he is a solicitor, perhaps because of his strong moral compass or for some other, unknown reason. Our hero does not let sleeping dogs lie and, as a result, saves at least two semi-innocent lives. The strange part is that Will feels no reward in the end but loses his faith in the order of things. I would omit the last two sentences in the book to keep this oddity out.

The audio is cut in one place, with some of the text being lost.

I always enjoy Soundings covers, they are consistently among the best among long audiobook series.

Cover Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash