The Existential Detective

Alice Thompson

You will be drawn into an unsettling netherworld in this surreal, dreamlike whodunit where the most reliable witness is a blind man. Emotions take precedence over hard logic and the eerie atmosphere makes the simplest act seem loaded with meaning. Written with a distinctive voice in subtle and elegant prose, this is a dark, beguiling, compelling read.

Extract

Portobello at night was at its most uncanny and quiet; the lamps leading down the promenade, the huge moon in the sky over the flat sea. Cold and still. It was like a photograph, he thought: a photograph not of the past but of the present. As Will walked down the promenade, he realized he preferred the darkness to unnatural light. The world, nature always told the truth. Men lied, made it bright when it was night, warm when it was cold. It was the truth Will was in love with. For the one incident in his life that had made him the man he was, or rather unmade him, the violent truth of what had happened in the past, was denied him.

Parallels