A TIDY ENDING

Cannon’s third novel centers on a Welshwoman with a secret traumatic past in a town with a possible serial killer.

What are the salient details in this story? Cannon, a master of obfuscation, makes it hard to tell. There is Linda, the narrator, certainly. She is married to Terry. She is miserable. Her childhood was ruined by allegations toward her father—sexual abuse or misconduct is implied—and his subsequent death. She and her mother relocated to the undistinguished English town where the book takes place. She is 43. As the book opens, a murder victim has been found in town, the second in recent times. Linda seems to spot a clue watching the press conference on TV but doesn’t say what it is. Meanwhile, she becomes obsessed with Rebecca Finch, former resident of her house, whose luxe catalogs still arrive in the mail. Linda is a slippery one, as a character and as a narrator. She describes to the reader, over and over again, how things are. What people are like. What people do or will believe. And she often sounds astute. But when she narrates herself in social settings, she seems tragically awkward and friendless. Time goes on and the bodies pile up. Linda stalks Rebecca and makes her acquaintance. So much time is spent on Linda's daily movements and musings, so much time on the Rebecca plot. The murders are a hot topic in the neighborhood, but are they even important? Where will it all lead? Will it be satisfying? The ending is not, as promised, tidy.

An exercise in red herrings.