Title: The Night Visitor
Author: Lucy Atkins
Published: July 2018, Quercus
Format: Paperback, 356 pages
Source: Publisher
Summary:
How far would you go to save your reputation? The stunning new noir thriller from the author of the bestselling The Missing One and The Other Child. Perfect for fans of I Let You Go and The Ice Twins.
Professor
Olivia Sweetman has worked hard to achieve the life she loves, with a
high-flying career as a TV presenter and historian, three children and a
talented husband. But as she stands before a crowd at the launch of her
new bestseller she can barely pretend to smile. Her life has spiralled
into deceit and if the truth comes out, she will lose everything.
Only
one person knows what Olivia has done. Vivian Tester is the socially
awkward sixty-year-old housekeeper of a Sussex manor who found the
Victorian diary on which Olivia’s book is based. She has now become
Olivia’s unofficial research assistant. And Vivian has secrets of her
own.
As events move between London, Sussex and the idyllic South
of France, the relationship between these two women grows more entangled
and complex. Then a bizarre act of violence changes everything.
The Night Visitor
is a compelling exploration of ambition, morality and deception that
asks the question: how far would you go to save your reputation?
My thoughts: This is just as creepy a book as the cover is and I couldn’t have loved it more! I have to admit…I was a little worried that I was going to be freaked out by the beetles, but I actually loved the way they were woven into the story line – so unique and interesting. This is the first book I’ve read by Lucy Atkins, but it definitely will not be the last.
I loved the way this story was told, alternating between Olivia and Vivian’s points of view. It draws you into their lives and really hooks you into the story…it’s addictive and you will be hard-pressed not to find yourself totally immersed in this story. There are so many secrets that beg to be revealed…they are hinted at right from the very beginning, which totally hooked me and kept me captivated all the way through.
As much as this book is a mystery, it is also a wickedly good character study about these two women. Olivia is a historian and television personality and is soon to be a published author. Vivian is a housekeeper and is rather socially awkward and a little odd. She has also been helping Olivia with the research on her book as she had in her possession the diary on which Olivia based the book. It was Vivian who brought the diary to Olivia’s attention in the first place, but is the diary really what it purports to be? There is a lot of tension between these two women as well as a lot of secrets…and the relationship between them is fraught with stress because of this.
As much as you want to race to the end to figure out all the secrets, you also want to savor the words, savor all the happens in the middle – the creepiness and the intense sense of foreboding are just as menacing and intriguing as the ending – and boy oh boy, what an ending this book has! I loved every bit of this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants a good psychological thriller to read…this is one that gets under your skin and doesn’t let up!
***I was sent the UK version of this book, which had a different cover than the cover pictured above. It’s just as creepy in my opinion – I’ll be posting that cover on Instagram, come check it out 🙂
