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

4.0

Faith Severn’s aunt was hanged for murder shortly after World War Two. Forty years later, an author decides to write a book about the infamous Vera Hillyard, and Faith is forced to revisit some of her family’s long-held secrets. This is therefore a whydunnit, not a who/howdunnit. I found much of the “present day” parts of the book to be slow going, and particularly in the early part it was really difficult to keep who was who straight. (We meet multiple generations of a family with various remarriages, half siblings, etc.)

However, the psychological elements of the book—Faith’s reminiscences about Vera and other family members—are masterfully done, and the evocation of a lower-middle-class family 1940s England really engaging.