Wow. What a stunner. Blake (aka Cecil Day Lewis) messes with the reader’s mind literally from page 1, and being fully aware of the fact still doesn’t mean you’ll be up to what he is doing — or at least not all of it. Even to begin talking about the plot would mean giving away half the twists, so let’s just say it concerns a writer’s search for the reckless driver who mowed down his little son a few months earlier, as well as a family dominated by a bullying patriarch (and his equally bullying mother). And from outright suggestions of lunacy to characters deliberately disguising their identities — or their innermost nature and / or intentions — to a myriad other ways in which Blake indulges in his cat-and-mouse game with the reader’s mind (authorial / narrative perspective, sequencing — the whole kit and caboodle), this is one big screwed-up joy ride … for those of us who like this sort of thing every so often, that is.
Side note 1: If you’ve read any of Blake’s other Nigel Strangeways books before (particularly any of the early ones), forget everything you’ve seen there. Even though this book features both the Strangeways couple (Nick and Georgina) and Inspector Blunt, it is anything but a typical entry in the series (and all the better for it).
Side note 2: If you are interested in sailing, you may particularly enjoy this story. It also probably helps to be familiar with the lingo — which I am not, but I could follow along nevertheless, and during the one crucial scene set on a boat, I was just too glued to my speakers to pause listening in order to embark on an online search for the meaning of individual terms.
Hoist the yardarm matey and trim that tops’l and tell the bosun’smate to keel the skipper and anchors away!
I think I’ve got it…
Lol. Hah, if only! 🙂
Blake was a real sailing enthusiast — if he’d set any other scene than that one on a boat (a mere dinghy, as it happens), I’d have been tempted to check up on the vocabulary. As it was … 😀
I picked this up when I read your review. Only problem was that I ended up picking up an abridged audiobook. I sent that back (it was the only one showing when I searched) bought the Kindle version and was then offered the unabridged audiobook. Sigh.
So now I have two copies and I’m looking forward to reading them side by side.
I hope you’re going to enjoy it. And FWIW, though I didn’t mention this in my review (I meant to, but ultimately forgot), you’re probably better off with the Kindle or a print version anyway — Dyer makes seriously odd pauses every so often, which got on my nerves after a while, all the more since this wasn’t the first recording where he did it.