The Last Winter of Dani Lancing: A Novel
A complicated structure, including leaps from character to character and shifts back and forth in time, interferes with the reader&'s enjoyment of British author Viner&'s ambitious first novel, a psychological thriller. Twenty years after the unsolved murder and rape of 21-year-old Londoner Dani Lancing, who was attending university in Durham, Dani&'s father, Jim, is literally living with Dani&'s ghost—a ghost who cannot remember the circumstances of her death. Dani&'s mother, Patricia, left Jim years earlier; she is so obsessed with her search for her daughter&'s killer that she&'s unable to relate to another human being. Det. Supt. Tom Bevans, an appealing figure whose unrequited love of Dani drove him to find a career in helping victims and their families, has news for the Lancings: Dani&'s case is going to be reopened, and old evidence reexamined with state-of-the-art methods. The satisfying ending, though a bit of stretch, makes up for the stuttering plot and disorienting flashbacks. Agent: Simon Trewin, William Morris Endeavor. (Oct.)