Book of the week

Gillian Galbraith is probably best known for her DS Alice Rice novels, but in The End of the Line she has branched out into something a little different. It remains tangentially a crime novel – the plot centres on the death of an old man in suspicious circumstances – but the tale is woven from three main strands, two of which focus on other things, before tying everything together nicely in a satisfying denouement.

The story is told from three different perspectives – Anthony Sparrow, an undertaker who is clearing the house of the deceased, introduces the journal entries of the other two, as he tries to ascertain the truth behind the old man’s death.

Alexander Anstruther, deceased nonagenarian and retired haematologist, focuses on much more technical matters – he faces an inquiry about his work during the AIDS crisis, and the question of whether he and his colleagues knew that the donated blood they gave out had been tainted with HIV.

However, it is clear from his writing that he is suffering from Alzheimer’s and his memory is falling apart. Hate mail,

sent by the families of deceased AIDS patients, does not help his lucidity. The third perspective, that of Jean Whitadder, is a sad tale of a young woman with little in the way of prospects or money, who takes on work as a home help for Anstruther in his last weeks while she searches for the truth of her own family line.

At times, the novel can get a little dry and jargon-heavy, often due to the inclusion of autopsy and psychiatric reports, as well as the details of the inquiry itself. Gillian Galbraith is, however, clearly an old hand at the art of crime writing, for each seemingly-dry segment ties back in to the main plot, weaving a complex narrative that is full of twists and turns in all the right places

The main narrator of the piece, Sparrow, is verbose at times, but manages to stay relatable through openly discussing his emotions and reasoning throughout.

Perhaps not a summer blockbuster, nor an action-filled romp, this novel is likely to appeal to many for its slow-build tension. The contradictions between the various narrators will leave the reader puzzling over what really happened throughout, which gives a sense of being really drawn in, of becoming amateur detectives ourselves, in a way that fasterpaced novels often lack.

Before the end, many readers will find themselves questioning their ethics and the nature of truth, until the final reveal sets everything on its head again.

Review by Bethan Lloyd-Wiggins.

The End of the Line by Gillian Galbraith, Polygon, £8.99.