SOURCE: "How the Dead See It," in The New York Times Book Review, November 17, 1991, p. 9.

[Bailey is an English-born journalist, nonfiction writer, novelist, and critic. In the review below, he discusses Murther & Walking Spirits, remarking on the unexpected turns in Davies's plot and the protagonist's development.]

The epigraph to Robertson Davies's new novel, Murther & Walking Spirits, is as apt as can be. It comes from the Samuel Butler who was a 17th-century poet and satirist: "Printers finde by experience that one Murther is worth two Monsters, and at least three Walking Spirits. For the consequence of Murther is hanging, with which the Rabble is wonderfully delighted. But where Murthers and Walking Spirits meet, there is no other Narrative can come near it."

Mr. Davies wastes no time in putting into effect this antique prescription for a best seller. His protagonist narrator, Connor Gilmartin, the entertainment editor of The...