Confessions

How it reads

Confessions is mystery (psychological revenge mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are justice, loss and grief and secrets. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is dark — no rescue, no neat bow. At 234 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.