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

4.0

There is a lot going on in A Dark-Adapted Eye, and it is sloo-o-o-o-w and not entirely satisfying. You have to be determined to get past the first third of the book, because before you can even find out what the whodunit is (WHO got murdered??) you are going to be informed of the killer's ex-step-grandparents, their second cousins, where their father lived as a child, what class each of their ancestors would have been perceived as, and who disapproved of which marriage in their entire family lineage. There's probably a dissertation out there that talks about how this novel deals with British rural class transitions, landownership, and gender. It's all sort of amusing if you're the kind of person who thinks you would have loved to sit down with Rose for three hours and hear the story of the love she lost on the Titanic. Ultimately this read like Daphne du Maurier with a bit of VC Andrews.