num_pages: 278
description: Faith Severn has grown up with the dark cloud of murder looming over her family. Her aunt Vera Hillyard, a rigidly respectable woman, was convicted and hanged for the crime, but the reason for her desperate deed died with her. Thirty years later, a probing journalist pushes Faith to look back to the day when her aunt took knife in hand and walked into a child's nursery. Through the eyes of a woman trying to understand an unspeakable, inexplicable family tragedy, Barbara Vine leads us through a shadow land of illicit lust, intimate sins, and unspoken passions—to a shattering and illuminating climax, as inevitable as it is unexpected. In this enthralling masterpiece, a great crime writer has achieved both a flawlessly crafted novel of psychological suspense and a deeply probing work of literary art.
language: English
title: A Dark-Adapted Eye
titlecomplete: A Dark-Adapted Eye
genres: 20th Century, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Novels, Crime, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, British Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 9584
places: England
awards: awardedAt: 504950400000
name: CWA Silver Dagger, awardedAt: 536486400000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best Novel
publisher: Plume