Looking for intriguing, captivating books with older female leads?

Lucy Atkins sits firmly on my favourite authors list with her ability of creating enigmatic female lead characters and stories that are not only intriguing but also touched my heart. Whilst her previous two books featured middle aged females (the "invisibles" of our society), her latest novel presents us with an eccentric, plucky octogenarian who harbours a shameful secret. All three books were solid 5-star reads for me and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. So if you feel that older female protagonists are in the minority in fiction, do yourself a favour and pick up any of these three novels, you won't be disappointed!

WINDMILL HILL by Lucy Atkins

 

If you enjoyed Frederick Backman's A MAN CALLED OVE, then you are going to love Atkin's eccentric 82-year-old heroine Astrid. Ever since the breakdown of her marriage to famous actor Magnus thirty odd years ago, Astrid has been living in a derelict old windmill with only her housekeeper cum friend Mrs Baker and three miniature dachshunds for company. It's merely by chance that Astrid spots an article in the paper announcing that her terminally ill ex-husband Magnus is about to publish his much awaited autobiography. She knows that she will have to stop him at all costs, because of an incident in their past that destroyed Astrid’s own acting career and has altered her life irrevocably. She simply cannot face having to relive the shame. So, this reclusive octogenarian embarks on a journey to Scotland to confront her dying ex-lover.

Atkins tells her story through multiple timelines, jumping back and forth between the past and the present. Whilst Astrid is the main POV, excerpts from letters written by an earlier owner of the windmill to her husband also reveal some of the windmill's tragic past. I admit that initially there were many threads and mysteries that didn't seem connected and didn’t come together until the very end, but it was all worth the wait!

What wonderful characters Atkins has created with her two elderly ladies. Astrid might be over eighty and not as sprightly as she used to be, but she constantly reminds us that she is NDY (not dead yet). As the past threatens her reclusive and humble existence in the windmill, she must face up to one of her life's biggest regrets- with surprising consequences. It's a rare story that can evoke such a range of emotion - I laughed, I cried, and at one point I could hear my heart breaking clean in half. There were so many themes in this book that resonated with me, and I won't forget Astrid in a hurry. There aren't many novels out there that feature old women, especially ones that focus on the present, which made WINDMILL HILL even more special.

WINDMILL HILL has definitely earned a place on my favourites list. Atkins is a master at creating complex characters and intriguing stories (both her previous novels THE NIGHT VISITOR and MAGPIE LANE were also 5-star reads for me). Very highly recommended!

MAGPIE LANE by Lucy Atkins

Let me introduce you to my second 5-star read for 2020 – TA DA! MAGPIE LANE was like my own personal formula for reading bliss. A nanny in an old spooky English manor house in Oxford. Family secrets. A disturbed child who may or may not have some connection to the weird noises and shadows flitting about in the house at night. Characters who ALL have something to hide. All the very things I just LOVE in a mystery!

Dee is a middle-aged woman with some secrets in her past that have seen her live a life looking after other people’s children. She has stayed with many different families and cared for children of all ages and backgrounds, but none has ever got under her skin the same way Felicity has, this pale, mute and unhappy daughter of Oxford’s latest Don.

I immediately loved Dee, from the very moment she shares her self-deprecating humour:

“It may be my functional approach to fashion, but people seem to assume that I’m in charge.”

The picture was painted. A somewhat plain but keenly intelligent middle-aged woman wearing drab clothes to roam the grey streets of a wintry Oxford, wielding an umbrella. I soon realised that I, too, had misjudged her, because Dee was not only smart, but also fiercely loyal to her latest little charge. Not an easy job when you are pitted against Felicity’s father, the arrogant Nick, and her trendy Danish stepmother Mariah.

It wasn’t long until the plot thickened. Nick and Mariah have a dark secret they are determined to keep hidden. Felicity is traumatised. The house, too, has secrets it divulges only at night, in its moving shadows, its silent whispers, its doors that open and close at random, and the spooky little priest hole in the attic where a rotten smell seems to linger. Even Oxford itself, described as: ...a place of dust motes, vaults and arm-span alleys, of angle-poised lamps and dimmer switches, of creaking floorboards and whispers in oak-panelled libraries.” You can see why this was totally irresistible for me! If you are not a fan of the supernatural, don’t despair, because Atkin is always willing to give a perfectly rational explanation for all the things that spooked hell out of me.

Let’s also talk briefly about the unique POV the story is told in. Dee, the nanny, is being interviewed by police who are trying to establish the whereabouts of Felicity, Dee’s young charge, who has disappeared from the house whilst Dee was in London and the girl was in the care of her stepmother. As Dee tells the story of how she came to be the nanny, the full picture slowly emerges in flashbacks and confessions until .... well, that’s something you have to find out for yourself.

I really can’t divulge any more without giving things away, so let me just say that this book was a perfect for me. If you like an atmospheric setting, a creepy mystery and characters that are as mysterious as the setting itself, then you can’t go wrong with this one. Good spooky mysteries are hard to find, and it doesn’t get any better than this. 

THE NIGHT VISITOR by Lucy Atkins

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.

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.

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.