BELINDA BAUER — SNAP

Image: a knife’s edge under a microscope

This crime novel was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. The MBP has led me to many fine novels; it has not led me to many fine crime novels. I come away from reading Snap impressed — both with the MBP people and with Ms. Bauer — for breaking a genre barrier. The prose favors idiom and simplicity over literary pretension. What separates this novel from other crime novels is emotional nuance rendered deliberately and with care. Ms. Bauer has seized onto the trauma of a murder and not let go until she’s drawn out all the truly compelling ways it has motivated and affected her characters. It is a story told with generous clarity. Read, April 2020.