The Missing Shower Curtain: A Symbol of Staged Murder in The Raging Storm
Introduction
In Ann Cleeves’ The Raging Storm, the seemingly mundane object of a missing shower curtain becomes a pivotal piece of forensic evidence and a potent symbol. The shower curtain is deliberately removed from Jeremy Rosco’s rented cottage bathroom, where the murder took place, and later used to wrap the body. This act of removal and reuse reveals the killer’s deliberate attempt to sanitize the crime scene and stage the death. The analysis below explores the curtain’s literal role in the plot, its recurrence across the investigation, and its deeper connections to characters and themes of deception, hidden identities, and the urge to control narratives.
The Missing Shower Curtain as a Physical Object
The shower curtain first enters the investigation indirectly. In Chapter Four, detectives Matthew Venn and Jen Rafferty enter the bathroom and discover “blood. A lot of blood. In the bath and spattered onto the tile walls.” They note the house is otherwise immaculate, with no used plates or mugs. Crucially, the shower curtain is absent from the scene—it has been taken down, leaving the bloodstained bath exposed. This omission immediately signals that someone removed it purposefully.
Later, in Chapter Twenty-Six, the physical curtain reappears. While exploring the coastline near Scully Cove, Matthew Venn tells his husband Jonathan, “There should be a plastic shower curtain.” Jonathan finds it tangled among rocks, along with a large waxed canvas bag that had contained Rosco’s belongings. The curtain had been used to wrap Rosco’s dead body, presumably to control bleeding and protect the killer from transfer evidence. Its final resting place—discarded and sea-damaged—completes the journey from domestic object to murder accessory to discarded clue.
How Its Meaning Changes
The shower curtain’s symbolic weight shifts over the narrative. Initially, its absence is a gap that points to a planned crime: the killer did not simply kill in haste but took time to strip the bathroom of a common item. This mirrors the broader theme of deception and hidden identities that runs through the novel.
When the curtain is found, it serves as physical proof of the killer’s method and mindset. It was not a weapon but a tool of concealment. By wrapping the body, the killer attempted to sanitize the violent act, creating a disembodied, almost bloodless corpse for the lifeboat crew to discover in the dinghy. The curtain thus transforms from something ordinary (a household privacy screen) into an object of horror and careful staging—a stand-in for the killer’s effort to control how Rosco’s death would be perceived.
Character Implications
The missing shower curtain directly implicates Eleanor Lawson, who confesses in Chapter Fifty-Two to planning Rosco’s murder. Eleanor’s love of power and resentment over Rosco’s refusal to fund a sick child drives her to kill. Removing and reusing the curtain aligns with her character: she is meticulous, manipulative, and obsessed with appearances. The Barbrethren community she belongs to values propriety and moral order, yet she breaks the ultimate rule while trying to present a sanitized version of events.
For the investigators, the curtain becomes a key clue that helps reconstruct the murder sequence. Detective Matthew Venn and Jen Rafferty follow the trail from the empty hook in the bathroom to the bag and curtain on the shore. This deductive chain showcases Venn’s methodical style—he uses physical detail to build a story, much as he did with the train ticket found wedged in a window.
Other characters, like Ross May and Davy Gregory, are drawn into the web of clues around the curtain and the bag, but their roles highlight different aspects of the investigation—Ross’s eagerness and Davy’s local knowledge. The curtain object thus weaves through multiple character arcs, reinforcing community and isolation as the villagers grapple with the revelation that one of their own is a killer.
Thematic Significance
The missing shower curtain is a central symbol for staging and sanitization. The killer goes to great lengths to hide the mess of murder: cleaning the cottage, using the curtain as a wrapping cloth, and positioning the body dramatically in a dinghy at sea. This echoes the theme of power and manipulation, as Eleanor Lawson (née Wren) tries to impose her narrative of a heroic explorer’s symbolic sea burial. The curtain’s removal is the first step in this performance.
At the same time, the curtain points to class and resentment. Eleanor uses the resources of her comfortable life—a clean bathroom, access to Rosco’s home, the means to transport a body—but her motive springs from bitterness over perceived social slights. The curtain, a cheap plastic item, stands in ironic contrast to the expensive champagne and AeroPress coffee Rosco kept for his elusive visitor. The object underscores the gap between the killer’s mundane methods and the grandeur she imagines.
The curtain also touches on obsession and unrequited love. Rosco was waiting for “someone special,” presumably his first love, Eleanor, but she intended to kill him all along. The curtain, which in a romantic context might be part of a lovenest’s decor, becomes the shroud of a deadly reunion.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why is the missing shower curtain the first sign that Rosco’s death was not a natural accident?
The shower curtain’s absence from the otherwise clean bathroom suggests deliberate removal. A natural death or suicide would leave the curtain in place. By noticing the missing curtain, Venn and Rafferty immediately suspect a staged crime scene. The killer took it down to wrap the body and control blood transfer, which indicates planning and concealment.
2. How does the journey of the curtain—from bathroom to dinghy to rocky cove—parallel the killer’s attempt to control the investigation?
The curtain moves from private domestic space (the cottage) to public maritime space (the dinghy) to a semi-hidden natural space (the cove). This trajectory mirrors the killer’s goal: to remove evidence from the scene, present a clean corpse at sea, and then discard the wrapping where it might not be found. The curtain’s final discovery by Jonathan disrupts that control, proving that the killer could not fully clean up after themselves.
3. In what ways does the curtain connect to Eleanor Lawson’s confession and her stated motive of power and resentment?
Eleanor confesses to planning the murder and admits she loves power, not charity. The curtain removal shows her attention to detail and her desire to stage the scene as a romantic or heroic end for Rosco. It reflects her resentment: she uses a common household item to dispose of a man who once rejected her, turning his own love tokens (the champagne, his preparations) into a trap. The curtain is a material sign of her calculated, cold revenge.
4. What does the curtain reveal about the Barbrethren community’s values of cleanliness and order?
The curtain’s removal and later discovery in a dirty, natural environment contrast sharply with the hyper-clean cottage and the community’s emphasis on propriety. The killer tries to impose a sanitized narrative, but the curtain’s eventual appearance on a beach, fouled with sand and seawater, betrays the violence beneath the surface. It shows that even the most respectable members (like Eleanor, a leading figure in the Brethren) are capable of crude acts when driven by obsession.