Book Review: THE NIGHT VISITOR by Lucy Atkins

Title: THE NIGHT VISITOR

Author:  LucyAtkins
Read: June 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 

Book Description:

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.

What attracted me to this book:

Ever since reading Lucy Atkins’ latest book MAGPIE LANE I have been a huge fan of the way her mind works and have been reading my way through her previous books. I was touched by Kali’s quest to find out about her late mother in THE MISSING ONE and enchanted by the wild landscape of Vancouver island, with its rugged coastline and its many natural wonders. I was fascinated by the cover of THE NIGHT VISITOR, which features a dung beetle of all things, and immediately taken in by the premise of the dark story of obsession and lies that lay beneath it.

My musings:

Professor Olivia Sweetman is a renowned historian who is about to launch her first novel, a story based on the diary of Victorian woman Annabel Burley, a female physician who penned the secret confession of the murder of her husband in its pages. Vivian Tester, the socially awkward housekeeper of Ileford Manor, who initially found the diary, has been helping Olivia with her research, unearthing fascinating facts about the women herself and her family, whose last remaining member is wiling her last days away at a nursing home. Whilst Vivian’s research has been invaluable, Olivia has found her personality to be challenging and can’t wait to get her out of her life once the book has been published.  But Vivian has other ideas ....

It is difficult to put the complex plot of this book into a few words, especially without giving spoilers, so let me just say that the dynamics between the two women were fascinating, tense and sometimes utterly terrifying! Whilst Atkins offers us insight into Vivian’s head by her first person POV, we only ever hear from Olivia in the third person, creating room for doubt and suspense. In the process of reading this twisted tale, I found my allegiance shifting constantly from one woman to the other, never quite sure who I could trust. It’s interesting how all of Atkins’ characters – intelligent, independent women - have their origins in academia and science, giving the story additional depth and adding some interesting background information to the story.

As in the other two books I have read by the author, Atkins uses an atmospheric setting to create additional tension, and the old manor of Ileford House is a perfect stage to let the story play out. And whilst I learned fascinating facts about orcas in THE MISSING ONE, I was fascinated by the background information about dung beetles in this one. This may sound like a strange stage prop, but let me assure you that it all fits perfectly together in the way only and accomplished author like Atkins can pull off. And whilst the house in itself is not exactly creepy in a traditional sense, the images of Vivian’s night visitor and the old haunted well do create a Gothic feel that gave me goosebumps. As a fair trigger warning I should also say that the book contains a horrific scene involving the death of a dog, which was fairly traumatic.

Summary:

All in all, Atkins has cemented her name firmly on my list of favourite mystery writers and I was as enamoured with this one as I was with her other books. If you like a dark tale of obsession and revenge set against a delicious creepy old manor house setting, then look no further. As the story progressed and the tension mounted, I had little idea of how this tale would play out. I dare you to guess the ending if you are game – I certainly did not see THAT coming.