The Man on the Endless Stair

Barkley’s ambitious debut attempts a grand refresh of the locked-room mystery. Novelist Euan Irving and solicitor Colm Hubert are summoned to the remote Hebridean home of Euan’s mentor, Malcolm Furnivall. Once the men have arrived, Malcolm announces at a lunch also attended by his wife, children, and personal assistant that he intends to have Euan finish the final novel in his popular Gravitation series upon his death. Shortly after, while Malcolm is apparently alone in a locked room, a shot rings out, and the author is found with his throat cut. His widow, Anwen, asks Euan to ferret out the killer. As Euan investigates, he also tries to find Malcolm’s latest manuscript, all while being haunted by memories of his younger sister, who went missing while Euan was away fighting in WWII. As with others of its type, Barkley’s tale overflows with suspects, motives, and red herrings, but a late-breaking, metafictional plot twist, whose magnitude is likely to divide readers, sets the novel apart from its peers. The weight of that reveal throws the narrative somewhat off-balance, but Barkley uses it to chew on worthy questions of guilt and faith. Mystery fans whose tastes lie off the beaten path will be excited to see what he does next. (Dec.)