Here's the welcome anecdote to my disappointment with the last book. Wilkie Collins has cemented his place as one of my literary crushes with this book, and I don't even hold his friendship with Charles Dickens against him. Readers, once I started reading, I couldn't put this book down, and I bitterly resented anything (including sleep and meals) that took me away from the story.
And what a story it is. We have a series of unreliable narrators, all of whom show biases that affect their ability to see things clearly, telling an unfolding story that generates as many questions as it answers right up until the end. I've mentioned that I am one of those people who can suspend disbelief and go along with any decently written story, and in fact, if I can figure out where the story is going it must be super obvious. Readers, I could never have predicted the solution to this mystery if I had tried for years. And trust this author to have the ultimate ending be just as I would have wished it to be. It really almost brought a tear to my eye.
One neat thing was a reference the author makes to the murder case that is the topic of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - I thought it was a reference to that case, and reading the introduction to the novel, I was vindicated.
All in all this was, to quote innumerable book reviewers, an "intricately plotted" mystery with well drawn characters that is also an amazing page turner. Clearly I need to read more Collins too. Highly recommended.
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