| Summary Note |
Rural Scotland, 1999. Alastair, a doctor in his eighties who lives alone by a loch, wakes up in hospital having fallen and hit his head, inducing almost total amnesia. Lacking family, friends, or knowledge of himself, Clemence, his sole contact's great-niece, is called in to take care of him. Retreating to Alastair's remote cottage to help him recuperate, Clemence finds a peculiar manuscript, hidden away from prying eyes. The first line shocks her to the core: 'It was a warm, still night and the cry of a tawny owl swirled through the birch trees by the loch, when I killed the only woman I have ever loved.' Reading the short prologue, she discovers a murder by someone who is clearly the old doctor. The victim? Clemence's French grandmother, Sophie. Horrified, Clemence decides to read the book to Alastair, to rekindle his memory of her grandmother and their group of friends in 1930s Paris, and to try to force a confession for a crime he was never punished for. But as they read on, doubts about the true course of events begin to surface in her mind. Which is fortunate, because there are people closing in on the cottage by the loch who are willing to kill to make sure that the old man's secrets stay forgotten... |
