*THE MUST-READ GOTHIC THRILLER OF 2021*
FROM MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF LITTLE EVE AND RAWBLOOD
‘I haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl‘ – STEPHEN KING
‘Believe the hype… a masterclass’ KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE
‘Books like this don’t come around too often’ – JOANNE HARRIS
This is the story of a murderer. A stolen child. Revenge. This is the story of Ted, who lives with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.
All these things are true. And yet some of them are lies.
You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, something lies buried. But it’s not what you think…
‘A chilling and beautiful masterpiece of suspense’ – JOE HILL
‘The new face of literary dark fiction’ – SARAH PINBOROUGH
CATRIONA WARD was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Her next gothic thriller, The Last House on Needless Street, will be published March 2021 by Viper (Serpents Tail).
Ward’s second novel, Little Eve (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2018) won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award and the August Derleth Prize for Best Horror Novel at the 2019 British Fantasy Awards, making her the only woman to have won the prize twice, and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Her debut Rawblood (W&N, 2015) won Best Horror Novel at the 2016 British Fantasy Awards, was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award and a WHSmith Fresh Talent title. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. She lives in London and Devon.
My Review:
This is one of those books that reviewers will LOVE but HATE because it’s almost impossible to review without spoilers and believe me, you need to read this with absolutely NO idea what it’s about except there’s a serial killer, a talking cat and a young woman who’s determined to track down her little sisters abductor.
The Last House of Needless Street is so cleverly plotted and beautifully written that the reader becomes so entangled in the lives of the main narrators that it’s impossible to put this book down.
We have 3 intriguing and compelling main narrators and each one has such an important part to play in the story. Ted is our first narrator, a simple man who views the world in a slightly off-balanced way and throughout the chapters we learn more about him and his upbringing and why he now lives in a boarded up house, isolated from the world with only his daughter, Lauren and cat, Olivia for company.
Dee is the older sister of Lulu, who was abducted when she was 6 following a spate of child abductions and has spent the past 11 years trying to find her. When one of her sources leads her to Ted, she tracks him down and moves into the house next door determined to find her sister.
I honestly can’t say anymore, because it’s unfair and you will hate me.. so I will say that nothing is as it seems and this book puts a twist on twists and takes the reader on an unforgettable journey.
