Thursday 4 May 2017

Book Review - The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins

Amazon UK
Title: The Night Visitor
Author: Lucy Atkins
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: 4th May 2017
Rating: 4 Stars


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?

I'm not really sure what I think about this book, its definitely a good story (if a little confusing in places at first), and for most of the book I it seemed to hook me in and had me completely hooked on the action and how it would all turn out. But did I like it, and enjoy it? I'm not convinced. 

However regardless of whether I did enjoy the story, I could appreciate how well constructed it was , and the layers of deception involved were impressive.  

I sort of liked Olivia, and cared about what happened to her, and the book she was writing would be interesting to fans of history. Vivian on the other hand, I took an instant dislike to, I just couldn't really get to grips with her character, and felt from the start that there was something just a bit weird about her. 

I think it is the psychology of what has happening in the book that had me turning the pages continually without a break. I was curious just what the myriad of secrets would turn out to be, and whether any of my own guesses would be remotely right.  Most of the characters in this book seemed to be hiding things, and I'm still even at the end not sure everything was revealed, which is a bit unsettling. 

The Night Visitor is definitely a cleverly crafted book, well written and one that I found more absorbing then I realised as I was reading it. I found I read it in a surprisingly short amount of time, and have a feeling that elements of it may play on my mind for a while to come. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Quercus for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

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