Night Windows

by Jonathan Smith

Someone has stolen Patrick Balfour's identity. A successful headmaster of a London school, a regular broadcaster and a writer of historical novels, as well as having a fairly spicy private life, Balfour is the object of some unsurprising envy. Yet who would be so malicious as to commit identity fraud and frame Patrick as a thief and a paedophile, using his national insurance number and impersonating his handwriting? As Patrick is teased by a series of letters, it becomes apparent that his adversary is certainly better-read than him and he is sent off on a tense literary chase, picking up clues from Kafka's The Trial to R L Stevenson and to Joseph Clark, a 17th Century contortionist. Patrick's morale begins to collapse - the police don't believe him and his daughter rejects him. Desperate, he decides he must pursue his pursuer.

372 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 19, 2004

About the author

Jonathan Smith was born in Wales in 1942 and went to Christ College, Brecon. He read English at Cambridge, taught at Loretto School, Edinburgh and in Melbourne, and from the late 1960s onwards at Tonbridge School, where he was head of English for 17 years. He is married and lives in Kent.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable but with even more of an abrupt ending than I was expecting (won't say any more and spoil it)! I do enjoy a good mystery, and I would say this book is worth the read, but I didn't feel this was up to the standard of some my favourite mystery authors.

[Nick Burridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good story, well told - very relevant to today's world.

[Meriel Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting bit of this book was not actually the story. I found myself not really caring ‘who dunnit’, I just found the character of Patrick so interesting.
I also loved the many references to other books which are now on to my ‘to read’ shelf.