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May 31, 2011
This novel, part gothic tale and part historical suspense kept me up until all hours. The Little Stranger is an old-fashioned ghost story, complete with spooky house, eccentric inhabitants and a narrator who may not be as mild-mannered as he seems. Doctor Faraday, a lonely bachelor, first visited Hundred’s Hall in 1919 as a child when his mother worked for the aristocratic Ayres family. Now, 30 years later he is called back to treat a servant. His once solitary life becomes entangled with the family: Mrs. Ayres the elegant owner; her 24 year old son Roderick, an RAF airman wounded during the war: and daughter Caroline, considered a plain spinster by locals, but for whom Dr. Faraday develops a special attachment. And the mansion, Hundred’s Hall, is to my mind the most important character in the story. Author Sarah Waters ever so slowly builds the suspense as she skillfully weaves tension and dread into each and every paragraph. A book not to be missed.