How does Murray’s narrative structure, alternating between Leila and “Witness X,” manipulate the reader’s perception and shape the novel’s central mysteries regarding identity?

The theme Deception as a Mechanism of Power applies to characters across the social spectrum. Compare and contrast the motivations and methods of deception employed by elite figures such as Julian Kesler and Anton Smythe with those of Leila Reynolds and Jack Millman. Does the novel suggest a moral difference between these deceptions?

Beyond serving as a backdrop, how does the specific social and professional setting of the modern UK criminal Bar, with its ingrained class hierarchies and ethical codes like the “cab-rank rule,” function as a catalyst for the novel’s central conflicts?