Frances “Fran” Jellico

Frances “Fran” Jellico is the dynamic character and also the narrator of the novel. She narrates from her deathbed in a prison where she is in jail for the murders of Peter and Cara. Victor is visiting with Frances trying to get her to confess to him what she did. Frances never reveals if she told Victor the truth. She does realize as she is dying that Victor loved her.

She transforms from being a woman who is gullible and easily led to one who identifies herself as “A difficult old bird” (40). Frances allows herself to be found guilty of Cara and Peter’s murders so she will be put in jail. She believes this will be a penance for her act of killing her mother. Frances also craves the routine that she knows she will have to follow in jail. She had always believed that...