Well, following other reviewers on Amazon who have proven the thoughtful equals of Banville's own intelligent fiction makes my own comments rather anti-climactic. I'm glad I hadn't read the summary or the comments before I opened Shroud--warning: major plot spoilers abound! Suffice it to say that David Lehman's "Signs of the Times" on the late 1980s Paul deMan revelations, while not receiving explicit credit in the author's notes, can shed light on the inspiration for Banville, much as the Blount spy episode does for The Untouchable, which pairs neatly with this novel as two portraits of unlikeable but captivating men that Banville sketches not with a righteous incrimination but a humanist compassion as he seems to report rather than construct their tales. No other comments have appeared on the triptych-like structure of the novel, so about this I will add a few words.