The story in one page
Philip Esdaile, a newly elected A.R.A. painter, finds his celebratory morning interrupted by a lethal shooting in his Lennox Street studio. As a tight circle of friends attempts to manage the body and the evidence, the incident is bizarrely treated as an accidental nuisance rather than a crime. The narrator, a writer, observes the frantic attempts to normalize the situation while rumors of the death seep into the public consciousness. Between club meetings and public-house gossip, the truth of the weapon and the victim remains obscured by social maneuvering and personal loyalties, until the eventual departure of the principal players for the Yorkshire coast.
Who's who
- Philip Esdaile
Philip Esdaile is a painter and Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R. who recently secured an Associateship after his service as an official Admiralty artist.
- Billy Mackwith
A barrister who assists Philip in retrieving his earlier paintings.
- Chummy Smith
A veteran connected to the death inside the Chelsea studio.
- Inspector Webster
A police officer representing the formal inquiry into the death.
- Audrey Rooke
A woman whose life is entangled with the studio residents.
What it's really about
- Social Concealment
- Keeping murder quiet via polite etiquette.
- Post-war Normality
- Veterans integrating death into civilian life.
Why it's memorable
- A jar of orange curaçao held as the primary evidence.
- A moonlike radiance of light spread across the floor.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
As the group heads to Paddington for the train, a police inspector watches silently from the street. Philip casually greets him as the taxi pulls away.
For your book club
- Why does everyone treat a fatality like a broken vase?
- Does the narrator actually like the people he observes?