THE TENTH INTERVIEW

Veteran Wainwright, whose output tends to be wildly uneven (The Forest, etc., etc.), successfully brings off a taut, economical story in the ""less is more"" tradition. Small-town pharmacist Herbert Grantley is being questioned by Detective Chief Inspector Lyle after professing to have poisoned wife Norah a year before--her death attributed then to a third heart attack. In a series of interviews, Grantley flashes back to his sterile, self-obsessed life with a well-meaning woman unable to cope with his damaged persona--what little warmth he possessed was concentrated on their only child Jenny. He recalls Jenny's kidnapping at 19 (she was restored to him after a ransom payment of 10,000 pounds); Jenny's marriage and his now-total estrangement from her. Lyle listens, responds, and eventually reaches the true heart of the matter in the climactic tenth interview. Clever, convincing and gripping start to finish.