In every life there are certain crucial moments. . . We are unable to alter or avoid them but, nonetheless, as they occur we recognize in them a turning point, a stepping stone "-a view beyond the gate of Eden. William Corlett's love story illuminates a year in the lives of young man, a young woman and a mysterious old bachelor who has been ( and for the young man, still is ) a teacher. " Chance events that we assign to luck or to fate or to destiny " lead the young man, one afternoon, to do a kind of killing. The novelist's style is cinematic: long shots of English seaside coast, moor and woodland; quick cuts, echoes the superimpositions; flashes of apt dialogue that are often outrageously funny, more often cryptic tense. His vision-of middle class family life, friendship and the betrayal, and of people on trial in the courts conscience-is vividly clear and humane. His heart is in his stories every moment.