The point of view of this novel is unique. In the beginning and ending chapters, the point of view is third person through the narrating character of Helen Scofield, a reporter who has brought her research notes to the daughter of a woman she once wrote an article about. These chapters are narrated much like any other novel told in the third person omniscient point of view. However, the bulk of the novel is presented as though they were the typed notes Ms. Scofield took based on interviews with important people involved in the murder trial of Mary Amesbury/Maureen English. These sections are told in the first person point of view, as with the letters Mary Amesbury wrote to Ms. Scofield, or the authorial voice as with interviews Ms. Scofield conducted with important participants in the case.