Explore the significance of the crime elements
in this extract. Remember to include in your
answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways
that Miller has shaped meanings. [25 marks]
This extract is the opening section of A.D. Millerʼs novel, Snowdrops (published in 2011). The
story is told by a British lawyer who is looking back at the time when he was working in Moscow.
The structure of the extract (common use of suspense and feature in gothic/crime fiction).
The extract appears as a journal or diary entry through the rhetorical questions and lack of
speech marks or dialogue. It appears a man recounting his memories because it likely is –
“so here is what Iʼve written”.
The introduction of the smell although we are given no other context about it. The
dramatic tension created in this. The descriptions we are given – giving the reader parts
but not the full story. The description of the body – “greenish flesh” and just the method of
murder a “hammer” or “brick”.
Commentary on society – the policeman asking if he wanted to see the body and the
name “Snowdrops” suggesting that the murder victims or dead bodies are common
occurrences.
As the extract begins the use of dramatic irony and suspense common to crime fiction is
immediately introduced through the limited perspective and first short sentence “I smelled it
before I saw it” which sets up a question which the reader wants an answer to - yet only
receives, further on in the extract. The uncertainty surrounding the event which has occurred,
although the fact that it is a crime is clear due to “all the uniforms”, causes anticipation in the
reader urging us to read on and discover what is causing the smell which was like forgetting “to
put your rubbish out before you go on holiday”. Allusions to rotting fruit and vegetables through
the “ripe but acidic” smells further endites disgust and revulsion towards the crime which is not
yet clear although we begin to piece together the descriptions of a rotting body and the smell of
flesh. Through this A D Miller uses a technique of suspense described by the author H P
Lovecraft as being the “oldest and strongest fear of mankind… fear of the unknown” to describe
a rotting body not yet seen or identified.
Additionally, the structural pattern of this story appearing to be retold at a later date
demonstrates its significance in the narrators mind as having become permanently engrained in
his psychology, with the short sentences reflecting the way this event (and previous ones) have
impacted the narrators life. The narrator appears to be a man recounting his traumatic
memories as he states, “so here is what Iʼve written”, similarities to the use of letter writing or
journal entries common to crime fiction can be drawn. For example, in ‘The Murder of Roger
Ackroydʼ, it is revealed later on in the novel that it is Dr Sheppardʼs journal entries we are
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