Point of View

Two different points of view are used in this novel. The majority of the story is told by a third-person narrator. Consider the opening of the second chapter: “PC Donna De Freitas would like to have a gun” (9). The narrator knows the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of all of the characters, including Donna. This narrator is not involved in the action of the story, but he sometimes refers to his reader. In his description of the drive to Coopers Chase, for instance: “If you are ever minded to take the A21 out of Fairhaven and head into the heart of the Kentish Weald, you will eventually pass an old phone box, still working, on a sharp left-hand bend” (15). The narrator refers to the reader as “you” (15) as if he were speaking to a friend. This third-person point of view gives distance to the story, keeping...