Point of View

John Banville's The Book of Evidence is written in first person narrative from the sole perspective of murderer Frederick Montgomery. This narrative is frustrating since it is tightly restrictive and unlikely to be reliable. Montgomery is a narcissistic, cold-blooded murderer, given to flights of fantasy about his own life and his importance in the lives of others.

Banville hints at information just outside of the reader's grasp and then never fully reveals it. Montgomery contradicts media coverage of him and his case and even lets the reader know when things are not as other characters are trying to convey them.

Montgomery jumps from telling the story of his past to what is happening to him or what he is thinking at the moment he is writing. The past and the present are separated well, and the reader does not lose track of his story. Still, Montgomery's...