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.
The Night Visitor is a compelling exploration of ambition, morality and deception that asks the question: how far would you go to save your reputation?
My Review: The Night Visitor was highly recommended by several of my favourite authors on my What the Authors Recommend 2017 feature, so it would have been foolish to ignore the endorsements of Amanda Jennings, Clare Mackintosh and Sarah Hilary! (Click here for their reviews)
This is a beautifully written story which is told through alternating chapters between Olivia, a highly successful historian and minor TV celebrity who has written a book based on the Victorian diary of Annabel Burley and Vivian, her researcher and socially awkward owner of the diary.
This is one of those books that has tension simmering from the first page until the last, with two main characters who are both so intense and strangely captivating – this is a book full of secrets, deceit, fear, ambition and obsession.
An atmospheric, sometimes claustrophobic creepy psychological thriller which will get deep under your skin (especially if you don’t like beetles).
About the Author: Lucy Atkins is an award-winning author, book critic and features journalist. Her new novel, The Night Visitor, is about celebrity, ambition and lies (Quercus 1 May 2017). Lucy is also the author of the novels The Other Child and The Missing One.
Lucy lives with her husband and three teenaged children in Oxford, UK and has also lived in Philadelphia, Seattle, and Boston. She reviews books for The Sunday Times, and has written features for newspapers such as The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and magazines such as Red, Woman & Home, Psychologies and Grazia. Lucy has also written several non fiction books, including the Amazon #1 parenting bestseller, First-Time Parent (Collins, 2008)
