Point of View

The story is written in third person from the limited perspective of Mary Panton. In an interesting deviation from the typical journalistic style, the author changes the perspective in a couple of instances so that the book is written as if addressing the reader. For example, there is a lengthy description of the villa, presented very generally from Mary's point of view. However, when Mary gives Karl the tour of the villa, there's a description of the stairs by which a person would reach Mary's bedroom. The story reads that Mary's room in on the "second floor to which you ascended by a fine flight of steps." The use of the word "you" is repeated in another place in the book and it's not clear why the author chose this method. It seems possible that the author is trying to place some emphasis on the description...