Thursday, June 25, 2009

The little stranger by Sarah Waters


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Genre - Literary fiction


This is an atmospheric ghost story set in England after WWII. Hundreds Hall is a crumbling stately home & the Ayres family are struggling to survive with dwindling income & only a couple of servants. Local GP, Dr Faraday is called in to attend the housemaid, Betty, & meets Mrs Ayres, her son, Roderick, who was badly injured in the war, & her daughter, Caroline. Dr Faraday was a working class boy who became a doctor & has never felt at home with the local gentry, but in the post-war world, he becomes a trusted friend of the family. The social changes of the period are obvious as the Ayres are forced to sell off their estate to property developers to survive. The strange happenings at the Hall - the running footsteps in the old nursery, the speaking tubes whistling for no reason, the fires that break out in Roderick’s room – unsettle everyone. Is a malevolent spirit haunting the family or are they tainted with madness? Echoes of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca are very effective in creating an atmosphere of menace & doom in this beautifully written story of a family in a time of change.

---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters

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