The titular story of this collection is actually a novella of 140 pages written with the precision of a short story. While there are thirteen chapters, they do not actually present thirteen different perspectives on the incident, rather we mainly have the viewpoints of the protagonist/victim, Mendelssohn, and of the police, but there is definitely much review of videocamera footage and even reference to the complex range of vision of a household fly. We learn a lot about the elderly Mendelssohn, his success as a judge, his yearning for his deceased wife, Eileen, his regular habit of going to lunch at Chialli’s. The environment of a very snowy day in uptown New York is meticulously depicted, from the chill in the bedroom before the heating kicks in to jayshuffling: “watching the red man flash and the New Jersey lady fume and listening to her horn beep, and the whole of New York city build up behind her,” and the restaurant itself. Even at the end of the story, we are left in doubt as to whether the murder was actually manslaughter or premeditated, what is evident is where the real responsibility lies and how that person will never face justice.

The three accompanying short stories also involve devastating events, both with a satisfying twist at the end. In all four McCann invites the reader to draw their own conclusions, while gently nudging them in a certain direction. This is short story writing at its peak.