Point of View

The novel is written in the third person and with the exception of the preface, it is written from Jesse Stone's or Kelly Cruz's point of view, depending on which of these two characters is at the center of the action or dialogue. The preface is written from the victim's point of view. One of these characters is in every scene in the novel and the author occasionally expresses their thoughts or feelings about situations, other characters, or the conversations they have outside of normal conversation or exposition. The information presented to Jesse and Cruz by other characters is not always reliable.

The majority of the information in the novel is conveyed to the reader through dialogue, specifically through conversations between Jesse or Kelly and someone else, although there are some sections that are purely descriptive (Jesse's first search of the Lady Jane, for example). The...