| This book has two main characters. Georgina (George) Gardener a councillor in her sixties with a degree in psyhology and criminology who becomes interested in the conviction of mentally handicapped man, Howard, in 1970 for the murder of his grandmother, and Dr. Jonathan Hughes, a fellow in European anthropology at London University, who has written a book on twentieth century miscarriages of justice. Howard is one of the cases. George contacts Jonathan in the hopes that he will research further Howard's case, but after an incident at the pub they were to meet in, she finds him arrogant and offensive and decides against it. Both characters carry their share of baggage from their own childhood and it plays a roll in the way they finally proceed to get together to write a book about Howard.
During the research another crime comes to light, that of a 13 year old that went missing a week before Howard's grandmother was murdered. The story twists and turns and bounces back and forth between the two cases until a connection appears of all characters in both cases. There is a lot of dialog in this book as the two main characters discusses the facts of the case with each other and the people involved. The first part of the book is chapters of Jonathan's book, there is Walters' usual amount of newspaper clippings and plenty of email between the many different characters. | ||
|
Plot & Themes Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear) Time/era of story: What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - nearly 100% Special suspect? - best friend Misc. Murder Plotlets - solving long-past murder - Proving innocence of very obvious suspect Kind of investigator Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book descript. of violence and chases - 10 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 30 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Main Character Gender - Male Profession/status: Age: - 20's-30's Unusual characteristics: Main Adversary Identity: - Female Age: - 40's-50's Profession/status: Motive of antagonist - revenge How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Setting Europe Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths Explicit sex in book? Yes What kind of sex: - rape (yeech!) Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript |
||