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The Second Curtain
Years after his divorce, George Garner has become a self-contained, dispassionate man. He sees his ex-wife as "a character out of a book." He divides his time between a career in a publishing house and writing a new book that he hopes will bolster his sagging reputation as a novelist.
However, when William Widgery, and old school acquaintance, disappears, George is called on to help find him and he becomes caught in a net of people, events and emotions which are both intoxicating and evil. He shudders to realize that a second curtain has risen on his life, revealing a kind of puppet show which traumatizes and changes him.
However, when William Widgery, and old school acquaintance, disappears, George is called on to help find him and he becomes caught in a net of people, events and emotions which are both intoxicating and evil. He shudders to realize that a second curtain has risen on his life, revealing a kind of puppet show which traumatizes and changes him.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
1 person is currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
Roy Fuller
86 books2 followersPoems (1939) was Roy Broadbent Fuller's first book of poetry. He also began to write fiction in the 1950s. As a poet he became identified, on stylistic grounds, with The Movement. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford University 1968-1973.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 9, 2011
Roy Fuller's novel The Second Curtain is subtitled "a mystery," and while it is something of a psychological thriller, you shouldn't mistake it for genre fiction. It's quite literary and had me thinking of Waugh, Orwell, and Anthony Powell.
The protagonist, George Garner, is a middling 40-something writer and reviewer in post-WWII London. He's divorced and lives alone in one of those shabby, borderline genteel apartments that frequent mid-century British novels, where meals often consist of soft-boiled eggs (still rationed) and tinned pilchards. He has an ego yet is something of a sadsack; life for him involves the constant management of his inferiority and superiority complexes as he negotiates social interactions with his cleaning girl, colleagues whose writing or bookish tastes are beneath him, the wealthy sponsor of a new literary journal, a sexy secretary. Though "thick-set and graceless," he has expectations of others: "A girl came up and shyly asked him to autograph a copy of Goats and Compasses: his pleasure in doing so was lessened by the fact that she was not pretty."
The novel's plot involves the disappearance of Garner's old school chum Widgery, with whom he has been corresponding, just as Garner has been invited to edit a new literary magazine. Obliged to be seeming to look into the disappearance in order to console Widgery's spinster sister, Garner uncovers certain possibly unsavory aspects of Widgery's life. Throughout it all, he is taking mental notes, appropriating characters, actions, and gestures for a new novel, but his authorial omniscience is soon turned on its head, as he realizes events are happening without his control, and people above him are pulling the strings.
Fuller's writing is a pleasure. I'm going to do an immediate reread, having sailed too quickly through passages such as this:
The protagonist, George Garner, is a middling 40-something writer and reviewer in post-WWII London. He's divorced and lives alone in one of those shabby, borderline genteel apartments that frequent mid-century British novels, where meals often consist of soft-boiled eggs (still rationed) and tinned pilchards. He has an ego yet is something of a sadsack; life for him involves the constant management of his inferiority and superiority complexes as he negotiates social interactions with his cleaning girl, colleagues whose writing or bookish tastes are beneath him, the wealthy sponsor of a new literary journal, a sexy secretary. Though "thick-set and graceless," he has expectations of others: "A girl came up and shyly asked him to autograph a copy of Goats and Compasses: his pleasure in doing so was lessened by the fact that she was not pretty."
The novel's plot involves the disappearance of Garner's old school chum Widgery, with whom he has been corresponding, just as Garner has been invited to edit a new literary magazine. Obliged to be seeming to look into the disappearance in order to console Widgery's spinster sister, Garner uncovers certain possibly unsavory aspects of Widgery's life. Throughout it all, he is taking mental notes, appropriating characters, actions, and gestures for a new novel, but his authorial omniscience is soon turned on its head, as he realizes events are happening without his control, and people above him are pulling the strings.
Fuller's writing is a pleasure. I'm going to do an immediate reread, having sailed too quickly through passages such as this:
"But I have never been able to read modern novels. For me, the novel lost its charm when Wells and those people took to it. You know, Mr Garner - purpose and all that sort of thing. I like a novel to have a good plot. I sometimes read Mrs Henry Wood, though they tell me that she is a very bad novelist and quite out of fashion. But she always has an interesting plot - usually about missing wills."
"Well," said Garner, "I'm afraid we don't go in for missing wills these days."
"I think it's a great pity," said Mrs Perrott. "Wills are still important, aren't they? I mean in spite of extortionate death duties and all that sort of thing."
"At the moment you'll find that wills have gone to ground in the detective story," said Garner, manfully keeping his end up.
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August 25, 2022Now available from Valancourt Books.
October 9, 2025
A well-written, understated piece with intrigue and murder. It's rather like plotting your moves for one game when your cohorts are engaged in another game altogether. Despite some period details, underlying themes and the conclusion feel relevant even now. I'm glad Valancourt Books has reprinted and released this one.
November 4, 2025
Well written. Really good attention to describing post-war England life. A very strange story and plot. And a very unusual, sad and depressing ending.
October 27, 2021
An absolute corker.
Reminded me equally of Nigel Balchin and Graham Greene. It's a thriller but definitely of the literary kind. There are a couple of nice set pieces as the protagonist finds himself scared out of his wits in the London Library and then at a football match (Chelsea v Newcastle I think).
I don't think there are many Fuller novels out there, he was, I believe, primarily a poet, though after this one I'll be hunting down the others.
Reminded me equally of Nigel Balchin and Graham Greene. It's a thriller but definitely of the literary kind. There are a couple of nice set pieces as the protagonist finds himself scared out of his wits in the London Library and then at a football match (Chelsea v Newcastle I think).
I don't think there are many Fuller novels out there, he was, I believe, primarily a poet, though after this one I'll be hunting down the others.
August 8, 2025
Roy Fullerin Toinen Esirippu on hieno teos, joka esittää yhtä suomalaisen käännöskirjallisuuden suurimpia ongelmia. Teos on tarinallisesti täydellinen. Se vetää puoleensa ja saa lukijan yllättymään loppu ratkaisullaan.
Toinen Esirippu kertoo kirjailijasta George Garner, joka saa kirjeen pitkä aikaisen ystävänsä yhtäkkisestä katoamisesta. Teos seuraa Garneria käänne käänteeltä, kun hän ratkaisee tapausta. Teos on täynnä runollisuutta. Roy Fullerin ura runoilijana loistaa kuin kirkas tähti, hänen lauseitaan lukiessa. Fuller oli myös ajallaan kiinn0stunut myös muun muassa marxismista, ja Fullerin politiikan kyllä pystyi tunnistamaan sivuilta.
Vaikka kirja loistaakin useilla hyvillä piirteillään, tulee yksi asia kuitenkin selväksi sitä lukiessa. Suomen kääntökirjallisuus on ollut rappiolla jo vuodesta 1993 lähtien. Toinen Esirippu suomentaja Juhani Jaskarin työ kirjaa kääntäessä on toispuoleista. Joka luvusta pystyy löytämään kohdan joka jää epäselväksi tai on täysin maailmaa mullistava (eikä millään hyvällä tavalla). Tämä saattaa johtua Fullerin runoilijamaisuudesta, joka saattaa johtaa oudompiin kielikuviin, mutta en osaa suoraa sanoa, sillä en ole lukenut Roy Fullerin teoksia englanniksi. Kaikki tämä johtaa kysymykseen, eikö kukaan oikeasti oikolue suomentajien työtä sen jälkeen kun he sen ovat tehneet.
Toinen Esirippu loppuu kutienkin erittäin kauniisti, jonka takia teos ansaitsee neljä tähteä. Kirjan lopetus, toisin kuin yleensä dekkareissa, ei päädy pahiksen käsiraudoissa pois raahaamiseen tai suureen kohtaukseen hienossa salongissa, jossa oikukas etsivä esittää teoriansa dramaattisesti, vaan teoksella on paljon surullisempi loppu. George Garner on vain pieni ihminen, joka ei ole tehnyt etsivän työtä kertaakaan elämässään, kun hän törmää niin suureen pahaan ettei sen reunoja näe, hän ei voi muuta kun alistua. Tämä on hieno kuvitus siitä, ettei yksi ihminen pysty aina ratkaisemaan kaikkea.
Teos on melkein joka puolin mahtavaa luettavaa, kuhan pääsee suomentajan työn laadun yli. Suosittelenkin tätä kirjaa, jokaiselle joka on kiinnostunut vanhoista britti dekkareista.
Toinen Esirippu kertoo kirjailijasta George Garner, joka saa kirjeen pitkä aikaisen ystävänsä yhtäkkisestä katoamisesta. Teos seuraa Garneria käänne käänteeltä, kun hän ratkaisee tapausta. Teos on täynnä runollisuutta. Roy Fullerin ura runoilijana loistaa kuin kirkas tähti, hänen lauseitaan lukiessa. Fuller oli myös ajallaan kiinn0stunut myös muun muassa marxismista, ja Fullerin politiikan kyllä pystyi tunnistamaan sivuilta.
Vaikka kirja loistaakin useilla hyvillä piirteillään, tulee yksi asia kuitenkin selväksi sitä lukiessa. Suomen kääntökirjallisuus on ollut rappiolla jo vuodesta 1993 lähtien. Toinen Esirippu suomentaja Juhani Jaskarin työ kirjaa kääntäessä on toispuoleista. Joka luvusta pystyy löytämään kohdan joka jää epäselväksi tai on täysin maailmaa mullistava (eikä millään hyvällä tavalla). Tämä saattaa johtua Fullerin runoilijamaisuudesta, joka saattaa johtaa oudompiin kielikuviin, mutta en osaa suoraa sanoa, sillä en ole lukenut Roy Fullerin teoksia englanniksi. Kaikki tämä johtaa kysymykseen, eikö kukaan oikeasti oikolue suomentajien työtä sen jälkeen kun he sen ovat tehneet.
Toinen Esirippu loppuu kutienkin erittäin kauniisti, jonka takia teos ansaitsee neljä tähteä. Kirjan lopetus, toisin kuin yleensä dekkareissa, ei päädy pahiksen käsiraudoissa pois raahaamiseen tai suureen kohtaukseen hienossa salongissa, jossa oikukas etsivä esittää teoriansa dramaattisesti, vaan teoksella on paljon surullisempi loppu. George Garner on vain pieni ihminen, joka ei ole tehnyt etsivän työtä kertaakaan elämässään, kun hän törmää niin suureen pahaan ettei sen reunoja näe, hän ei voi muuta kun alistua. Tämä on hieno kuvitus siitä, ettei yksi ihminen pysty aina ratkaisemaan kaikkea.
Teos on melkein joka puolin mahtavaa luettavaa, kuhan pääsee suomentajan työn laadun yli. Suosittelenkin tätä kirjaa, jokaiselle joka on kiinnostunut vanhoista britti dekkareista.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2022
Every now and then, with reluctance, I begin to read certain novels if they are well under 200 pages long. Most I never finish, but Roy Fuller's Graham-Greenesque thriller kept me going to the end. How?
Fuller has never been one of my favourite poets. His war-time poems hold my interest by dealing with his own feelings and impressions; those written after the war seem less personal, and more preoccupied with other poets, other books.
THE SECOND CURTAIN is very much a book about a bookish life, but one that takes a hard look at its novelist hero as it dismantles him. The effect is both cruel and honest: this man, who fancies himself smarter and more insightful than most people, finds himself swamped and over his head in a crime that expands in both complexity and threat, and what is more, a crime that he has no competence to solve. Fuller shows the price paid for a life of emotional detachment and full devotion to books, art, and music at the expense of personal growth: a price too severe, a life too shallow.
The book moves rapidly, with a genuine, "pull the carpet from beneath your feet" surprise three-quarters through, an impressively-described pursuit through a crowded football stadium, a looming sense of risk. As a thriller, it functions through pacing and plot, and as a literary novel, dissects its protagonist and his delusions without mercy.
Still, from start to finish, what kept me reading was the solid British competence of the prose. Having squirmed and scowled through too many badly-written blobs, pulp and modern, I was held by Fuller's confident refusal to be "poetic" or convoluted, to sacrifice economy and clarity to market demands for bloated illiteracy. A modern writer, Stephen King or even worse, would have pumped this book into a 972-page mound of toxic waste, and made it dull, dull, dull. Fuller, to his credit and to my relief, wrote as much as the book needed, but nothing more.
As for the book's ending, I feel conflicted. The final pages are honest, which makes them perhaps grimmer than most readers would prefer. Yet as I lay in bed afterwards and thought about this ending, I realized that, from a certain perspective, it might actually seem hopeful. For the protagonist of THE SECOND CURTAIN, as for that man in a song by the Rolling Stones --
"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need."
This, too, can bring a hint of necessary change.
Fuller has never been one of my favourite poets. His war-time poems hold my interest by dealing with his own feelings and impressions; those written after the war seem less personal, and more preoccupied with other poets, other books.
THE SECOND CURTAIN is very much a book about a bookish life, but one that takes a hard look at its novelist hero as it dismantles him. The effect is both cruel and honest: this man, who fancies himself smarter and more insightful than most people, finds himself swamped and over his head in a crime that expands in both complexity and threat, and what is more, a crime that he has no competence to solve. Fuller shows the price paid for a life of emotional detachment and full devotion to books, art, and music at the expense of personal growth: a price too severe, a life too shallow.
The book moves rapidly, with a genuine, "pull the carpet from beneath your feet" surprise three-quarters through, an impressively-described pursuit through a crowded football stadium, a looming sense of risk. As a thriller, it functions through pacing and plot, and as a literary novel, dissects its protagonist and his delusions without mercy.
Still, from start to finish, what kept me reading was the solid British competence of the prose. Having squirmed and scowled through too many badly-written blobs, pulp and modern, I was held by Fuller's confident refusal to be "poetic" or convoluted, to sacrifice economy and clarity to market demands for bloated illiteracy. A modern writer, Stephen King or even worse, would have pumped this book into a 972-page mound of toxic waste, and made it dull, dull, dull. Fuller, to his credit and to my relief, wrote as much as the book needed, but nothing more.
As for the book's ending, I feel conflicted. The final pages are honest, which makes them perhaps grimmer than most readers would prefer. Yet as I lay in bed afterwards and thought about this ending, I realized that, from a certain perspective, it might actually seem hopeful. For the protagonist of THE SECOND CURTAIN, as for that man in a song by the Rolling Stones --
"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes, well, you just might find
You get what you need."
This, too, can bring a hint of necessary change.
January 3, 2023
[Penguin Books] (1962). PB. 191 Pages.
George Garner is an interesting character, stating that he needs two (plus) drinks to be ‘like other people’: “…I am emotionally obstipated… I feel things, but the feeling doesn’t come out…”
He leads a somewhat quirky, bookish and insular life - mostly choosing to keep ‘friends’ and colleagues at arm’s length and operating in an insincere, selfish manner.
He bumbles through a series of episodes, associated with two suspicious deaths, towards a finale which is brutal, flat and somewhat unsatisfying.
George Garner is an interesting character, stating that he needs two (plus) drinks to be ‘like other people’: “…I am emotionally obstipated… I feel things, but the feeling doesn’t come out…”
He leads a somewhat quirky, bookish and insular life - mostly choosing to keep ‘friends’ and colleagues at arm’s length and operating in an insincere, selfish manner.
He bumbles through a series of episodes, associated with two suspicious deaths, towards a finale which is brutal, flat and somewhat unsatisfying.
April 9, 2019
An excellent thriller that transcends that genre marred by one startling word of off-hand racism
April 1, 2024
A nearly perfect amateur detective novel from someone who could just write like a motherfucker.
April 11, 2024
Interesting little book, more meta than I expected: equally concerned with the trappings of literature in general and detective fiction in particular, as well as with the topic of perception - how we are perceived and how we deceive. The characters wear their masks as armor, be it the main characters metaphorical "paper mache mask" or the mask of social respectability worn by the victim. No detectives here, the main character hasn't lived enough for it, but maybe now he has a chance to do so?
October 21, 2024
Set in the dingy post war London of rationing, Lyon’s Corner Houses and smoky gentlemen’s clubs this is a gem of a story. It concerns Garner, poet, half-famous novelist (…not THE novelist, Garner noted), book-reviewer in his early forties and divorced from his wife who left him eight years previously. Garner has confined himself to a self-contained orderly existence between his Bayswater flat, his work at a publishing house and forays to his club.
“You must come and have dinner with us one night.”
“I’d love to,” said Garner, without the slightest intention of ever doing so.
Since his schooldays at a “ramshackle” private school he has maintained correspondence with a fellow pupil, Widgery, whom he never sees but visualises as the schoolboy he once was rather than a grown man. Widgery lives in Lancashire where he runs a small family engineering firm. Garner is surprised to receive a letter from Widgery’s sister informing him that her brother has disappeared, possibly scandalously chasing a rather disreputable young man and wondering could Garner come and see her?
Garner, who out of the blue, has just been offered the editorship of a new literary magazine, catches a train north and is, in spite of himself, rather taken with Viola but is discomforted witnessing her emotion.
When she left the room… Garner walked to the fireplace with the luxurious feeling of solitude.
Roy Fuller was a poet and his writing reflects this. He has a keen eye for social discomfort as Garner is forced to confront some of his repressed emotions, particularly with respect to the women he constantly comes into contact with as the mystery unfolds. He is only really comfortable with downstairs’s cat and contemporaries in the rarefied air of the literati. He is predictably completely outside his comfort zone when the police wish to have a ‘word’ about Widgery.
He led the way to his flat, despising himself for his excessive amiability, his secret desire to prove himself a citizen of whom these men could approve.
On the way downstairs and into the car Garner spoke volubly so that no one who saw them should imagine that he was being arrested.
I think we’d all react like that. Things quickly become complicated and Garner is aware he’s being followed, at one stage making his escape through the packed terraces at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea appear to be entertaining Newcastle. It’s all very satisfying.
“You must come and have dinner with us one night.”
“I’d love to,” said Garner, without the slightest intention of ever doing so.
Since his schooldays at a “ramshackle” private school he has maintained correspondence with a fellow pupil, Widgery, whom he never sees but visualises as the schoolboy he once was rather than a grown man. Widgery lives in Lancashire where he runs a small family engineering firm. Garner is surprised to receive a letter from Widgery’s sister informing him that her brother has disappeared, possibly scandalously chasing a rather disreputable young man and wondering could Garner come and see her?
Garner, who out of the blue, has just been offered the editorship of a new literary magazine, catches a train north and is, in spite of himself, rather taken with Viola but is discomforted witnessing her emotion.
When she left the room… Garner walked to the fireplace with the luxurious feeling of solitude.
Roy Fuller was a poet and his writing reflects this. He has a keen eye for social discomfort as Garner is forced to confront some of his repressed emotions, particularly with respect to the women he constantly comes into contact with as the mystery unfolds. He is only really comfortable with downstairs’s cat and contemporaries in the rarefied air of the literati. He is predictably completely outside his comfort zone when the police wish to have a ‘word’ about Widgery.
He led the way to his flat, despising himself for his excessive amiability, his secret desire to prove himself a citizen of whom these men could approve.
On the way downstairs and into the car Garner spoke volubly so that no one who saw them should imagine that he was being arrested.
I think we’d all react like that. Things quickly become complicated and Garner is aware he’s being followed, at one stage making his escape through the packed terraces at Stamford Bridge where Chelsea appear to be entertaining Newcastle. It’s all very satisfying.
December 5, 2015
Hävyttömän huono suomennos pilaa täysin muutenkin keskinkertaisen teoksen. Tekstiä ei ole tainnut lukea niin kääntäjä kuin kustannustoimittajakaan ennen painokoneiden käynnistystä. Pelkäänpä, että pelkäänpä- ja miltei-sanojen liika hokeminen saa kerronnan maistumaan miltei lattealta. Kömpelöt lauserakenteet ja muut omituisuudet häiritsevät tarinan seuraamista. Näistä on muutama näyte seuraavaksi.
Kirjan tapahtumat pyörivät George Garnerin ympärillä, joka harrastaa kirjallisuutta ja kirjeenvaihtoa. Eräänä päivänä hän saa Viola Widgeryltä kirjeen, jossa tämä on huolissaan veljensä katoamisesta ja pyytää apua Garnerilta tapauksen selvittelyyn. Garner on ollut Violan veljen kanssa kirjeenvaihdossa ja on itsekin alkanut kummastella, miksi ei saa tältä vastausta kirjeisiinsä. Samoihin aikoihin Garner käy neuvotteluja uuden kirjallisuuslehden perustamisesta, ja häntä houkutellaan sen päätoimittajaksi.
Tapahtumat etenevät verkkaisesti vuoroin katoamistapauksen ja vuoroin kirjallisuuslehden parissa. Kerronta muistuttaa paljolti Nicolas Freelingin ikävystyttävän tylsää tyyliä, joka ei myöskään kuulu suosikkeihini.
Sapo luokittelee teoksen klassikoksi, mutta jää epäselväksi millä ansioilla. Toisen esiripun (suom. 1961) jälkeen Roy Fullerilta ei tiettävästi ole suomennettu enää mitään, enkä ihmettele miksi.
»Siten Valo sinun näkemyksesi mukaan, George», sanoi Fox viimein onnistuen laskemaan aironsa veteen hänkin, »tulee karttamaan politiikkaa.» (s. 77)
Vain viiden minuutin torkahdus, ajatteli Garner, ja sitten hän hakisi käsiinsä sen Sarah jonkun. (s. 110)
Garnerin hämmästykseksi tuomari lopetti Widgeryn kuolemansyyn tutkimuksen sen jälkeen kun hän oli antanut todistuksensa tunnistaen ruumiin. (s. 136)
Hän ei täydelleen palannut itseensä ennen kuin ulkopuolella käytävässä. (s. 186)
Kirjan tapahtumat pyörivät George Garnerin ympärillä, joka harrastaa kirjallisuutta ja kirjeenvaihtoa. Eräänä päivänä hän saa Viola Widgeryltä kirjeen, jossa tämä on huolissaan veljensä katoamisesta ja pyytää apua Garnerilta tapauksen selvittelyyn. Garner on ollut Violan veljen kanssa kirjeenvaihdossa ja on itsekin alkanut kummastella, miksi ei saa tältä vastausta kirjeisiinsä. Samoihin aikoihin Garner käy neuvotteluja uuden kirjallisuuslehden perustamisesta, ja häntä houkutellaan sen päätoimittajaksi.
Tapahtumat etenevät verkkaisesti vuoroin katoamistapauksen ja vuoroin kirjallisuuslehden parissa. Kerronta muistuttaa paljolti Nicolas Freelingin ikävystyttävän tylsää tyyliä, joka ei myöskään kuulu suosikkeihini.
Sapo luokittelee teoksen klassikoksi, mutta jää epäselväksi millä ansioilla. Toisen esiripun (suom. 1961) jälkeen Roy Fullerilta ei tiettävästi ole suomennettu enää mitään, enkä ihmettele miksi.
November 5, 2016
This is the second book in Roy Fuller's 1940s/1950s 'crime' trilogy and very nearly the equal of the first, With My Little Eye.
George Garner is a struggling writer who senses an upturn in his fortunes when, completely out of the blue, he is offered the chance to edit a new literary periodical that is being backed by a mystery benefactor. But before Garner can get his teeth into the new role, he learns that an old school friend has gone missing, and the man's sister is seeking Garner's help. So Garner has to prioritize detective work over editing and try to solve the mystery of the man's disappearance.
Right from its opening sentence ("Fox was rather like a fox."), this is another beautifully wrought novel by Fuller, full of wry humour, compelling characters, intrigue and mysterious goings-on, with some delightful set-pieces thrown in for good measure. It's a bit of a stretch to call it a 'crime' novel because there's really not much crime in it until the closing stages but with a book as good as this that really doesn't matter. There is a wonderful chase sequence set in a football stadium during a (Chelsea?) home game (I've never read anything quite like it) which definitely belongs to the crime/thriller genre and almost justifies the cover price alone. Garner learns towards the end of the story that most of the characters he has encountered whilst investigating the mystery are related in some way; this struck me as rather implausible but didn't really spoil my enjoyment of what is a thoroughly entertaining and beguiling novel.
George Garner is a struggling writer who senses an upturn in his fortunes when, completely out of the blue, he is offered the chance to edit a new literary periodical that is being backed by a mystery benefactor. But before Garner can get his teeth into the new role, he learns that an old school friend has gone missing, and the man's sister is seeking Garner's help. So Garner has to prioritize detective work over editing and try to solve the mystery of the man's disappearance.
Right from its opening sentence ("Fox was rather like a fox."), this is another beautifully wrought novel by Fuller, full of wry humour, compelling characters, intrigue and mysterious goings-on, with some delightful set-pieces thrown in for good measure. It's a bit of a stretch to call it a 'crime' novel because there's really not much crime in it until the closing stages but with a book as good as this that really doesn't matter. There is a wonderful chase sequence set in a football stadium during a (Chelsea?) home game (I've never read anything quite like it) which definitely belongs to the crime/thriller genre and almost justifies the cover price alone. Garner learns towards the end of the story that most of the characters he has encountered whilst investigating the mystery are related in some way; this struck me as rather implausible but didn't really spoil my enjoyment of what is a thoroughly entertaining and beguiling novel.
August 10, 2015
Oh, how delightful. Here is a man who loves language. It carries the story, which is a slight one.
A man's friend dies- he looks into it and suffers the consequences . There is no slam- bang finale and it proceeds quietly . It is a sojourn in some ones mind. You are not going to become transformed by this little Penguin crime story. It will not even have you on the edge of your seat. But it's a great example of what a poet can do. Love it and leave it- a gentle little excursion into one man's mind. 4/5
A man's friend dies- he looks into it and suffers the consequences . There is no slam- bang finale and it proceeds quietly . It is a sojourn in some ones mind. You are not going to become transformed by this little Penguin crime story. It will not even have you on the edge of your seat. But it's a great example of what a poet can do. Love it and leave it- a gentle little excursion into one man's mind. 4/5
May 22, 2020
An English author and intellectual is thrust into a suspense drama. Someone is out to get him.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews