A review by passifloraincarnata
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Fantastic!  A brutal character-study of a murder mystery.  The first I have ever read with the mystery so thoroughly inverted: we start knowing who the murderer is, and then spend half the book getting around to who was killed!  Only then do we embark on the motives.  Set during and after WWII near London, explored through the youthful memories of a now-mature character with her own biases. Gripping all the way through, and brilliantly written.