Godden is a master of style, particularly understatement. The final scene of Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy occurs in the chapel at Bethanie where — after her murder of Lucette — Vivi leaves a rosary near Lise's prie dieu, the same pink rosary she was holding in her hand years earlier when Lise literally picked her up unconscious out of a Paris gutter. As Lise sees it there, it is a silent reminder and subtle threat.

Godden has an interesting preoccupation with time which is evident in many of her novels. She uses flashbacks, not a dramatically original device, but she also uses flashforwards, which her critics consider a unique stylistic device. The latter technique suspends the reader above the moment at hand to look forward as well as back in a kind of godlike view unlimited by time present. Charles Dickens also uses this device in...