James has the ability of bringing to life even the most peripheral of her characters, sometimes with only a few lines. In the beginning of the book, some early victims of the Whistler, the mysterious killer, are introduced and do not reappear, since no investigation is reported. One such example is Valerie Mitchell, a fifteen-year-old who missed her evening bus and is more afraid of her father's reproaches than of the killer. One can feel her fright and imagine her father's wrath in the brief incident preceding her death.

James's characters are normally a mix of good and evil, and even the murderer is someone who is guilty of only the one crime around which the story turns. In this book, however, James offers several characters that are largely positive. One such character is Theresa Blaney, the teen-age girl who cares for her motherless brother and sisters. She...