In a world that clings so ferociously to binaries, the witness occupies a disruptive place. Both insider and out, relevant and marginal, the witness is the one who sees, who hears, who straddles the competing exigencies of see-something-say-something and mind your own business. To speak up involves risk. To remain silent exacts a psychic toll. The witness must decide whether to step out of the shadows or stay hidden. To not decide is still to make a decision.
These ideas stalked me as I wrote my psychological thriller, The Department. When a college girl goes missing, a washed-up philosophy professor stumbles into the mystery of her disappearance, only to uncover a trove of disturbing secrets within his academic department. Exposing them means dragging his own long-buried traumas into the light. But remaining silent means succumbing to his lifelong fear of being a powerless bystander. Now, that fear is put to the test, and his choices will have repercussions, not only for his future, but also for his past.
As I wrote this novel, I looked to literary precursors that, in various ways, engaged with the question of the witness, the voyeur, the spectator in hopes of understanding what we can offer one another and where we fall short. The following list reveals just how complex the role of the witness truly is.
Rear Window by Cornell Woolrich
Before Alfred Hitchcock introduced audiences to James Stewart and Grace Kelly in his 1954 critically acclaimed adaptation of Rear Window, it was a short story by Cornell Woolrich, originally published in 1942 under the title, “It Had to Be Murder.” Over eight decades later, it remains a gripping, claustrophobic exploration about the permeable boundary between witnessing and voyeurism. Through Woolrich’s sparse prose, we meet Jeffries, bound to his apartment, peeping through his blinds. Jeffries is convinced that his neighbor murdered his wife, and we must decide whether we are privy to the delusional ravings of a madman or the urgent warning of a witness. Woolrich is the original master of a trope that traces its throughline to contemporary mysteries like Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train, and A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window.
In the Woods by Tana French
This gorgeous thriller was Tana French’s debut and introduced the world to her lush prose and rich characters. It’s included on the list because it circles around a character who is haunted by his own inability to become a veritable witness in a crime perpetrated against him. The novel opens with the disappearance of three children in the woods. Only one resurfaces, but he recalls nothing of the harrowing event, or the fates of his best friends. Twenty years later, they are still missing and he’s on the Dublin Murder Squad, investigating another crime in those same dark woods. The question is: can he quiet his own demons enough to solve it?
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
What if you discovered that your witness testimony put the wrong person behind bars and now that man is dead? Do you let sleeping dogs lie or do you go digging? This is the dilemma that Hannah Jones must face a decade after her college roommate’s body was found and Hannah’s word helped send the culprit to prison. When a journalist comes around suggesting that the past might not be what it seems, Hannah embarks on a deep dive into the lives of her once-best friends only to discover that witnessing can be a terrible burden, especially when you get it wrong.
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Academia lends itself well to the complexities of the witness. This next book is about a professor who must confront her own buried knowledge about an old campus murder when she returns to her alma mater to teach a class. The novel feels like a fresh, exciting departure from Makkai’s stellar third book, The Great Believers, which was a finalist for the National Book Awards. In her latest novel, Makkai explores the dangers of refusing to acknowledge one’s past and the haunted form that memories take when one is relegated to the role of the bystander.
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Pay attention to every detail because you never know if you’re witnessing something important. This is the agony that Laurel Mack lives with ten years after her daughter Ellie Mack’s disappearance. Struggling between the onward march of life and the unrelenting grip of the past, Laurel finds momentary relief in the company of a seemingly good man. But when his daughter turns out to bear an uncanny resemblance to her own missing girl, Laurel must scrutinize every aspect of her world in search of the clue she failed to see.
I See You by Clare Mackintosh
The disturbing premise alone will set you on edge. On her morning commute, Zoe Walker sees a grainy picture of her own face in the local paper. Soon she discovers that she’s not alone. Other women’s pictures appear in the ad, and now they’re turning up dead. As Zoe struggles to balance her justified worry with her reluctance to alarm her family, the novel twists and turns its way into the terrifying terrain of the stalker. It hits close to home as we realize that our repetitive daily actions, like a seemingly innocuous ride to work, can make us vulnerable. The idea of the witness is turned on its head when any one of us can sit in the crosshairs of someone else’s gaze.
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
This exquisite novel is about sight and sightlessness and the very delicate line between the two. Young and poor, Patch saves the local town beauty from an attempted kidnapping, only to be taken himself. Held in darkness, Patch comes to rely on the calming presence of a girl that he cannot see, but grows to love during their captivity. His freedom comes at a terrible price, as he spends his life searching for her, painting her from feel and from the haunting sound of her voice in his memories. The question at the beating heart of this novel is about the kind of witnessing we can bear and what we owe to those we love.
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