A Navy Investigator, a Poet Criminologist and a Scholar whose expertise is the history and works of the Knight family. The family yacht was found deserted in the middle of the sea, no souls on board, only their manuscripts shedding light on the personalities of their respective authors; presumed dead, drawned under mysterious circumstances. The three men, who remain anonymous throughout the text, initiate a series of dialogues between them, with the Scholar having the central stage as he gradually reads and deciphers the huge pile of manuscripts. The Poet Criminologist gets carried away and talks about literature, mostly classics, blinded by the brilliance and wide knowledge of the Scholar while the Navy Investigator tries in vain to restrain the other two men and stay on track with the investigation. Who killed the others and then committed suicide by lifting the ladder, condemning everyone including himself to a slow and torturous death in the cold waters around the luxury boat? And why?
Those who like fast mystery novels with complicated interwinned storylines and police investigating amongst suspects, members of the underground, should stay away from the book. The actual crime is used only as an excuse: references to (amongst others) Dostoyevsky, Poe, Dickinson, Thomas Mann, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Da Vinci, the family situations of both the Criminologist and the Investigator whose lives get a new meaning by the Scholar's acquaintance and above all, the histories and works of the Knight family members, extraordinary characters all of them. Understanding them does not merely lead to the solution of the mystery, but rather to the better understanding of the human nature.Reviewed at the social site for books and libraries http://www.librarything.com by trandism
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