The night visitor

Format:

Book

Title:

The night visitor

Author:

Atkins, Lucy (Journalist) author

ISBN:

9781681440224

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : Quercus, 2018.

Physical Description:

392 pages ; 24 cm

Summary:

"The stunning new noir thriller from the internationally bestselling author of The Missing One and The Other Child ... 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 spiraled into deceit, and if the truth comes out, she'll 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. Now Olivia's unofficial research assistant, 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?"-- Provided by publisher.

Subject(s):

Secrecy -- Fiction.

Reputation -- Fiction.

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Businesswomen -- Fiction.

Women authors -- Fiction.

Plagiarism -- Fiction.

England -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

England -- Fiction.

England

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction

Fiction

Psychological fiction

Suspense fiction.

Noir fiction.

Detective and mystery fiction.

Psychological fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	Atkins, L.	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	Atkins, L.	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Silver Falls Library	FIC ATKINS	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

"A COMPLEX, CREEPY, AND INSIDIOUS NOVEL ABOUT AMBITION." -- THE GUARDIAN
"READERS OF RUTH WARE AND GILLIAN FLYNN WILL LOVE IT." -- LIBRARY JOURNAL (STARRED REVIEW)

"FASCINATING, BRILLIANT, CREEPY." -- GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

If you had the perfect life . . . how far would you go to protect it?
Professor Olivia Sweetman has worked hard to achieve the life of her dreams, with a high-flying career as a TV presenter and historian, three children, and a talented husband.

Only one other person knows that Olivia's perfect life is in fact a desperate tangle of lies: Vivian Tester, the socially awkward, middle-aged housekeeper of a Sussex manor who found the Victorian diary of a pioneering female surgeon on which Olivia's new biography is based.

In a gripping narrative that shifts between London, Sussex, and the idyllic South of France, Olivia and Vivian will learn knife-edged truths about themselves and discover just how far each will go to protect her reputation.

Author Notes

Lucy Atkins is an award-winning feature journalist and author, as well as a Sunday Times book critic. She has written for many newspapers, including the Guardian , The Times , The Sunday Times , and the Telegraph , as well as such magazines as Psychologies , Red , Woman and Home , and Grazia . She lives in Oxford.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This moody, meticulously plotted suspense novel from Atkins (The Other Child) opens at a launch party held at London's Hunterian Museum for history professor Olivia Sweetman, who's celebrating the release of her scandalous new biography of one of Britain's first female surgeons, Annabel Burley. The book is already a bestseller, so Olivia should be on top of the world; instead, she's furious with her husband for some unspecified betrayal, anxious regarding an overcoat-clad figure lurking at the back of the room, and terrified that her research assistant, socially maladjusted sexagenarian Vivian Tester, will reveal "the truth" about what Olivia has done. Flash back two months. Chapters from Olivia's perspective are interspersed with journal entries by Vivian, painting a detailed portrait of the women's complicated relationship while chronicling the events precipitating and then succeeding Olivia's launch night angst. Evocative writing heightens the sense of impending doom created by the tale's structure, keenly rendered characters enrich Atkins' exploration of the pettier aspects of human nature, and the book's harrowing conclusion gratifies without feeling pat. Agent: Matthew Bialer, Sanford J. Greenberger Assoc. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

An academic partnership turns sour in this tense and moody thriller.Professor Olivia Sweetman has it all: a happy family life with her husband and three children and a career on the rise as both an academic and popular historian frequently appearing on television. When she hears about a Victorian diarycontaining a scandalous confessionwritten by one of the first women doctors, she knows she's found the topic for her first book. The diary, however, comes with a catcha relationship with Vivian Tester, the woman who discovered it. Vivian is brilliant but mysterious and has a very different way of seeing the world than Olivia. She's an extremely competent researcher, and she and Olivia enter into a working relationship. As their work progresses, though, their relationship becomes increasingly fraught; both women keep secrets from the other, revealed to the reader in alternating chapters either narrated by Vivian in first person or from Olivia's point of view in third. Author Atkins (The Other Child, 2016, etc.) peppers every page with hints of things unsaid and dark underlying secrets. Sometimes the foreshadowing is a little overdone and heavy-handed, but it does not take away from the incredible number of twists and turns that appear as the novel stalks toward its ending. There's a ghost haunting the story, both literally and metaphorically, and that sense of unease keeps pushing all the way to the last, intense pages. A reckoning is coming, but why? The need to know what will happen when the inescapable comes to pass drives the reader ever forward even as a sense of dread pervades the narrative. Things must end, but they won't end well.With shades of Rebecca and The Secret History, Atkins has produced an eerie page-turner that will have readers guessing from the first. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

Olivia Sweetman has hit the big time. She's worked hard to balance her marriage, her three kids, her career as a respected historian, and a high-profile TV personality. Now she's written a historical novel set to become a runaway best seller, but danger lurks. As her launch party nears, the atmosphere darkens. Vivian Tester, the socially inept researcher who led her to the Victorian diary that's at the heart of her novel, is about to drop a bombshell. If -Vivian reveals her deceit, Olivia's world will crumble and her reputation will be shattered. Can Olivia save herself? Will Vivian reveal the truth and destroy her? How many historians before her have lost sleep over just such a nightmare? Brace yourself for a breakout tale of hubris and deception with a shocking finale. VERDICT A deliciously creepy novel fueled by fraud, greed, and violence. This latest from Atkins (The Missing One; The Other Child) fits right in with the best of the psychological thrillers on everyone's lists. Readers of Ruth Ware and Gillian Flynn will love it.-Susan Clifford Braun, Bainbridge Island, WA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.