Penguin no. 1420: Five Roundabouts to Heaven by John Bingham

This novel is one of the many forgotten Penguin crime novels. Not really a crime novel, though, because it deals with the planning and justification of a crime which is never committed, and the complicity of the narrator despite his ignorance of the planned crime. The five roundabouts to heaven are the roundabouts that Philip Bartels passes through on the route to his girlfriend’s house, though as the climax approaches he wonders if they are the five roundabouts to hell. He desires to be free of his wife, and because he has an aversion to inflicting pain, he reasons himself into planning her murder rather than her abandonment. And this is the crime that is planned throughout the novel.

This planned crime is the justification for the novel, but seems incidental to it. The book is really a study of the way people think and their motives for action or inaction. And how someone will quite willingly believe arguments that support actions they want to take. And how a set of logically reasoned steps can lead to an illogical conclusion. This aspect of the book is interesting and insightful, though perhaps a little obvious, but the surprise ending can be spotted a mile off, and the book drags as it approaches the end.