Synopses & Reviews
Elanor Dymott’s gorgeous debut tells the story of Alex, a solitary lawyer who has finally found love in the form of his beautiful wife, Rachel. When Rachel is brutally murdered one midsummer night on the grounds of their alma mater, Worcester College, Oxford, Alex’s life as he knows it vanishes.
He returns to Oxford that winter and, through the shroud of his shock and grief, tries to piece together the mystery surrounding his wife’s death. Playing host to Alex’s winter visit is Harry, Rachel’s former tutor and trusted mentor, who turns out to have been involved in almost every significant development of their relationship. Alex also turns to Evie, Rachel’s self-centered and difficult godmother, whose jealousy of her charge has waxed and waned over the years. And then there are her university friends Anthony and Cissy, who shared with Rachel her taste for literature and for the illicit.
As he delves further into the mystery surrounding her death, Alex discovers in Rachel’s wake a tangled web of sex and jealousy, of would-be lovers and spiteful friends, of the poetry of Robert Browning, and of blackmail. Brilliantly written and suffused with eroticism, mystery, and a hint of menace, Every Contact Leaves a Trace introduces a stunning new voice in contemporary fiction.
Review
"Shrewdly plotted and elegantly written…a narrative that is alert to life’s unknowable randomness." Financial Times
Review
"Superb...a quite exceptional novel...Beginning as a straightforward locked-room mystery, it develops into a delicate meditation on grief and revenge...Dymott has contrived a plot that is deeply satisfying." Observer
Review
"Elanor Dymott’s gorgeous debut novel is a murder mystery that's also a brilliant meditation on love and memory and loss. Like the Robert Browning poems her characters read at Oxford, the book is spooky, lovesick, dark, and lush, its narrator circling obsessively back on the death at its heart." Maile Meloy, author of < em=""> Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It < m="">
Review
"A beautifully written novel that seeks to unravel the mystery of a marriage—and a murder. Coyly revealing, it dares us to ask how well we can ever know a loved one." Taylor Stevens, < i=""> New York Times <> bestselling author of < i=""> The Informationist <>
Review
"Lyrical, haunting, and beautifully told, this book is a compelling mystery wrapped inside a tender love story. Ms. Dymott doesn't as much tell us story in her stellar novel as she casts us under a delicate but unbreakable spell." Lisa Unger, < i=""> New York Times <> bestselling author of < i=""> Heartbroken <>
Review
"Every Contact Leaves A Trace hooked me from the first few chapters, and swept me along on an amazing ride…It makes each of us question, what is love? Every contact does leave a trace, and it really…creates something new and unpredictable." accentBritain
Synopsis
A mystery of love and murder that introduces a compelling new voice in contemporary fiction.
Synopsis
Hailed in England as “superb” (Observer) and “very, very engrossing” (Guardian), Elanor Dymott’s stunning debut tells the story of Alex, a solitary lawyer living in London. When Alex is reacquainted with Rachel, the beautiful woman he fell in love with at Oxford a decade earlier, the two are immediately drawn to each other again and quickly marry. But they have little time to enjoy their newfound happiness. One summer night, on a visit to Oxford less than a year later, Rachel is brutally murdered, leaving Alex shattered by grief. He delves into the mystery surrounding her death, discovering in Rachel’s wake a tangled web of sex and jealousy, of would-be lovers and spiteful friends, of the poetry of Robert Browning, and of blackmail. Part murder mystery, part love story, Every Contact Leaves a Trace is an unforgettable debut that has earned comparisons to Ian McEwan, Donna Tartt, and Ford Madox Ford.
Synopsis
"This is more than a murder mystery. It's an examination of the subjectivity of accounts of truth. It's a desperately moving love story about a lonely man who finds salvation in another only to have the idyll destroyed. Finally, it's a tale of revenge, served cold and deadly." --
Synopsis
Elanor Dymott's gorgeous debut tells the story of Alex, a solitary lawyer who has finally found love in the form of his beautiful wife, Rachel. When Rachel is brutally murdered one midsummer night on the grounds of their alma mater, Worcester College, Oxford, Alex's life as he knows it vanishes.
About the Author
Elanor Dymott was born in Chingola, Zambia, in 1973. She studied literature at Worcester College, Oxford, later working as a commercial lawyer and legal reporter. She lives in London, where she plays jazz flute and is writing a new novel.