Golden Age (31) : The Colour of Murder

The Colour of Murder by Julian Symonds is an unusual and interesting crime novel. The crime is told in two ways, through a psychiatric assessment of the defendant told via a first person narration and also via the trial itself. 

The defendant is an unexceptional man, living a routine life with a dull but solid career and an unhappy marriage. He begins to fantasise about a young woman at the library who he thinks likes her with eventual terrible consequences.

The story is very good, with a number of levels of ambiguity to make the reader unsure as to what exactly happened and who is at fault. Despite the fact that the main characters are all rather unsympathetic in various ways and to carying degrees (this can make the first part rather hard going at times), this is an engaging story with a number of twists.