The Night Visitor - Lucy Atkins

About the book… 

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.

Buy Links: 

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2qUxBB1

About the author… 

Lucy Atkins is an award-winning feature journalist and author who has written several non-fiction books and two novels: The Missing One and The Other Child. She is a Sunday Times book critic and has written for many newspapers, including the Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Telegraph, as well as magazines such as Psychologies, Red, Woman and Home and Grazia. She regularly chairs events at the Oxford Festival and Cheltenham Festival and regularly talks about books on BBC Radio Oxford. She lives in Oxford with her family.

Contact Links: 

Website: lucyatkins.com
Twitter: @lucyatkins
Facebook: facebook.com/lucyatkinsauthor/ 

My thoughts…

I was offered a copy of The Night Visitor to review as part of the blog tour organised by Alainna at Quercus Books. Having read and reviewed Lucy's last book The Other Child I jumped at the chance.

The Night Visitor is a book that once I picked it up I didn't want to put down. It crackles with the sort of nervous tension that preludes a storm and makes you feel just a little bit on edge from the very first page. It begins as Olivia, an academic historian, turned author, turned minor tv celebrity is launching her latest novel. A novel based on the findings of an old diary kept by Annabel Burley who in Victorian times was one of the first female doctors in this country. This is a huge release and is destined to be a bestseller so the pressure is really on for Olivia.

It's very obvious that Olivia is in terrible turmoil, she is at odds with her husband, there are tensions with her children and also Vivian Tester, the woman who introduced her to Annabel's story. Through Annabel's story their lives had become entwined, with Vivian attaching herself to Olivia and Olivia inadvertently taking her on as a researcher whilst she writes her book. She clearly has more than just an obsession for detail, a trait that Olivia finds both pleasing and uncomfortable as she finds herself having to keep her at arms length, Vivian's behaviour becoming more and more obsessive.

This is a psychological thriller with a difference, in the fact that we had two main characters to unravel and a whole host of others added along the way — each and every one bringing intrigue and questions to the story. It's a unique story in that there is no natural 'goody' or 'baddy'. The Night Visitor is told alternately from Olivia's perspective and then Vivian's - it's very obvious that neither women really like each other yet at the same time and for different reasons need each other. It was difficult at times to decide whether I really liked either character at all, both very different, yet in many ways they were both very similar.
Both protagonists are twisted, selfish, cold, calculating and manipulating in their own way — each looking out for no' one. Yet, at times I felt an uneasy admiration and pity for them.

Once again, Lucy's descriptive skills are brilliant, she got inside my head with both the characters and the physical descriptions of places, with the intricacies of what at first appeared a simple story. A story that got right under my skin. Half formed questions popped into my mind constantly demanding answers to situations that couldn't quite be explained. Each of these saw me turning the pages faster and faster — wanting to calm my racing heartbeat. At the same time, holding my breathe. So many times I held my breathe, untangled the story, decided what was happening and why only to change my mind again with the next chapter. I don't think I've cussed and cursed out loud about characters for a long time as much as I did in The Night Visitor.

This is a dark twisty book that was utterly compelling and left me second guessing write up until the final page — between Olivia and Vivian I know longer feel like ` know my own mind and wonder if I'll ever stop questioning and doubting my decisions and thoughts — utterly brilliant, thank you so much Lucy for another amazing read.

The Other Child - Lucy Atkins

About the book...

Sometimes a lie seems kinder than the truth ... but what happens when that lie destroys everything you love? 

When Tess is sent to photograph Greg, a high profile paediatric heart surgeon, she sees something troubled in his face, and feels instantly drawn to him. Their relationship quickly deepens, but then Tess, single mother to nine-year-old Joe, falls pregnant, and Greg is offered the job of a lifetime back in his hometown of Boston. Before she knows it, Tess is married, and relocating to the States. But life in an affluent American suburb proves anything but straightforward. 

Unsettling things keep happening in the large rented house. Joe is distressed, the next-door neighbours are in crisis, and Tess is sure that someone is watching her. Greg's work is all-consuming and, as the baby's birth looms, he grows more and more unreachable. Something is very wrong, Tess knows it, and then she makes a jaw-dropping discovery... 

About the author...

Lucy Atkins is an award-winning author, book critic and journalist. Her latest psychological suspense novel, The Other Child (Quercus, 2015), is about a photographer and single mother, Tess, who falls in love with a paediatric heart surgeon and moves with him and her young son to Boston USA, where things begin to unravel. Her debut novel, The Missing One, is about a woman's search for her mother's hidden past. 

Lucy lives with her family in Oxford, UK but has lived in the USA three times: in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Boston. As well as writing novels, she is a book critic for The Sunday Times, and has written features for newspapers such as The Guardian, The Times,The Telegraph and magazines such as Red, Woman and Home, Psychologies and Grazia. Lucy has also written, co-written or ghost-written six health-related books, including First-Time Parent (Collins, 2008) 

My thoughts...

I follow Lucy on twitter and when she asked if I would be interested in hosting her for part of the blog tour for The Other Child I jumped at the chance.  I love reading contemporary novels and thrillers, especially psychological ones and The Other Child sounded right up my street.  I was just about to go off on holiday so I headed to Amazon to download an ecopy of the book as I couldn't wait for the review copy to arrive in the post.

There was no softly, softly introduction to this novel. Lucy dragged me straight into this edgy, psychological thriller, that had me looking behind doors and talking out loud to Tess on more than one occasion, willing her not to say or do something for my fear of the consequences.  I felt uneasy from almost the first page.  Tess and her situation just didn't sit right with me.  

The story begins when Tess and her son Joe arrive outside their new home in a Boston suburb that Greg, Tess's husband had rented for them. He had lived in the UK for 15 years but had applied and got his dream job back in his home country, America.  As a result, he quickly proposed to Tess, not wanting to leave her behind. A whirlwind wedding and Tess found herself emigrating to begin married life with her new husband in another country at a time when her life was already in turmoil.  Pregnant with Greg's child, despite him making it clear to Tess he never wanted to be a father. He was so good with Joe she was sure things would be ok once the baby was born.  Everything should be hearts and flowers but tension and stress oozes out of the pages.  

Lucy's descriptive skills are brilliant, she got inside my head with both the characters and the physical descriptions of places, with the intricacies of what at first appeared a simple story.  A story that got right under my skin.  Half answered questions, situations that couldn't quite be explained, neighbours that blew hot and cold, an elusive husband who was vague and evasive yet at the same time loving and caring.  Each of these saw me turning the pages faster and faster - wanting to calm my racing heartbeat. At the same time, holding my breathe - willing Tess not to do or say something for fear of the consequences.  

Time and time again I thought this would make such a good film - a jumpy, edge of the seat one - I held my breathe, untangled the story, decided what was happening and why only to change my mind again with the next chapter.  Some things just can't be explained. I would recommend this book to anyone who like me, likes that heart pounding, clammy hand feeling that gets the adrenaline pumping.  I loved this book so much and don't think I've ever read a book that had me contradicting my own thoughts so many times.  Over and over again I veered from not believing a word that was written on the page to believing every one of the same words - I was so convinced by the story. 

Lucy you had me hook, line and sinker.  So very rarely does a book leave me so drained.  I, unlike Tess can't blame pregnancy hormones, absence of close family and friends or worry over an unhappy child to explain my state of mind - I blame you! This rib crushing, adrenaline inducing story held my attention, I never for a minute had to suspend believe as every scenario and character was so very plausible.  Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of the blog tour for this amazing book.