Author: Elanor Dymott
Publisher: Vintage Books
First published: 2013Setting: Worcester College, Oxford, UK
Read in November 2013
My Rating ★★★★ 3.8
My Waterstones Review
Another murder in an Oxford college but there is no Morse or Lewis on scene. The love story between Alex and Rachel is deep but short lived, when returning to Worcester College to dine at high table Rachel is brutally murdered.
This last act occurs early in the book and in a bereft and melancholic state Alex starts to unravel the mystery of why Rachel became a victim and at whose hands. His lawyer training is called upon as the pieces are pulled together to complete the picture, but the perfect wife has a history and ultimately there is a moral dimension that will unfold.
Elanor Dymott provides a glimpse of a clue and later returns to provide colour and I suspect on second reading these clues will be more apparent. For a first novel Elanor should be commended. This is a deeply constructed thriller with many human emotions on show, jealousy, revenge, grief and deep love. There are few characters but their relationships are entwined and in some cases are shown to be a bit obsessive bordering on the creepy. As the narration concludes one of the main protagonists spins a yarn which seems truthful but how much of it has been fabricated, what are the motives behind the choices made in how the story has been told?
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