Genre
Crime/Detective
Setting and Context
The events take place in Edinburgh. The time is divided into two time-lines: the present time, and the time of thirty years ago.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is written in the third person, and follows the point of view of multiple different characters- Joanna Hunter, Reggie Chase, Jackson Brodie and Louise Monroe.
Tone and Mood
The tone is dramatic, while the mood is suspenseful.
Protagonist and Antagonist
There are multiple protagonists, with the main protagonists being Joanna, Reggie, Jackson and Louise. The main antagonist is Andrew Decker, with Billy Chase being a more minor antagonist. It could be argued that Neil Hunter (Joanna's husband) is another minor antagonist.
Major Conflict
The main conflict is whether a person can live a life if something really terrible had happened in the past.
Climax
The climax comes with the Dr. Hunter’s reappearance.
Foreshadowing
The introductory chapter reveals a foreshadowing that Joanna would have to struggle through her life.
Understatement
The concept of family, ‘blood and flesh’, is underestimated.
Allusions
The novel alludes to some writers like Hemingway, Dickens, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence. There are also allusions to some historic figures like Princess Diana.
Imagery
Images of nature, everyday use objects, houses, etc., are widely used in the story.
Paradox
“Neither of them spoke, there was nothing to say and everything to say at the same time”.
Parallelism
The chapters are told in the parallels of the present and the past.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“a stream dressed in PE kit, poured out of the school and spread over the green like a delta” (“stream” is metonymy for children)
“the suit next to him coughed” (‘the suit’ is metonymy for the person being dressed in that suit)
Personification
“The little road snaked one way and then another, so that you couldn’t see anything ahead of you” (the “road” is personified)
“The first sirens had begun to wail in the distance” (‘sirens’ are personified)
