Synopsis
It is a cold afternoon in winter. An old man sits in a room high above the sea, watching the sun set. It is twenty-four hours since the death of his wife at Seton Castle, the home they had shared for more than forty years. And as it grows dark, he tries to make sense of a life only recently understood; and to explain how he, by no means a violent man, has come to kill in cold blood...
Billboard - Trudi Miller Rosenblum
This compelling tale grabs the listener's attention from the first sentence, in which the elderly narrator admits that he has murdered his wife of 45 years---yet her death was ruled a suicide, and no one suspects him at all. From that intriguing opening, he goes back to relate the story from the start, when he was naive, 17-year old aspiring violinist who became enchanted by a brash, young American heiress. Many Gothic twists and turns follow: a wealthy, respected family, known both for its palatial ancestral home and for a streak of hereditary insanity; look-alike female cousins, one British, one American; secret loves; broken engagements; betrayal; suicide; murder. Jarvis is phenomenal as always, evoking both the innocence of the young narrator and the world-weary experience of the older man telling tale. His voice creates distinct characters with ease.