Patrick Carey

Yeah, it's a really fascinating conceit.

And I think what's interesting as well is

that the discovery of this note marks a real turning point in Vesta's life.

She has been, I mean, early in the novel, you find that she's someone that sticks to routine.

She's reasonably recently widowed.

And since the death of her husband and moving to this new area, she gets up in the morning, takes the dog for a walk,

gets home, drives to the shops, buys her coffee, buys her bagels, comes home.

Every week.

So she's very much, yes, exactly.

So she's very much a creature of routine until this note comes into her life.

From there, you know, this case becomes an obsession for her, but it also becomes a kind of energiser.

She goes from being

What some might think is a little too routine-based and a bit boring to this energized, imaginative thinker, which I think is a really interesting idea.

I think so.

I mean, all the stuff that happens in that library is hilarious.

There's a particularly...

hilarious moment where Vesta has an ongoing conversation with Ask Jeeves, which some listeners might remember was a pre-Google search engine.

It's sort of innocent, but also naively profound in that way that sort of, you know, innocent characters often are.

Yeah, you can't help but go along with it, can you?

And I think, I mean, I think you've touched on it there, that one of the reasons that this book works is that Mosfeg very subtly is a master of atmosphere.