Two aging lovers, preparing to live out their final days as she prepares to enter a home and succumb to Alzheimer's Disease, agree to clear up a mystery that has intrigued them both for almost 40 years: who was responsible for the death of her ex-lover and his great friend.
Each thought the other had killed Gerry, but as Lucy and Paul alternate writing and recording their memories of what happened from before World War II up to the time in the mid-1950's (culminating in Gerry's death), they realize they can't both be right and that the motive behind what happened in the Yellow Room might not be what each had suspected all along.
Initially drawn to this book because it supposedly contained a locked-room murder, it really turned out to be nothing like a traditional whodunit.
But it also turned out to be extremely interesting. The author managed to weave the story around his large cast of characters and make it simple to actually remember who they all were. The main body of the book is alternating memoirs of the two main characters, and is an effective way of telling the story.