- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (20 Jan 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006472133
- ISBN-13: 978-0006472131
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 11.2 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,011,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Synopsis
Thomas Penmarsh has always lived at Finisterre, by the sea. He sleeps in the room with the barred window and looks down on the cats in the garden. He is 48, but he has been an old man since 1967 when he lost everything he valued. Then cousin Esmond came back and rescued him from despair.
From the Back Cover
Thomas Penmarsh has always lived at Finisterre, the house by the sea. He sleeps in the room with the barred window and looks down on the cats in the garden. He is forty-eight, but he has been an old man since one evening in 1967 when he lost everything he valued.
Then Cousin Esmond came back and rescued him from despair and the cats. Esmond always looks after Thomas.
But now Alice wants to come home too.
Alice will spoil it all if she returns, because she brings the past with her. From the moment of her conception, she has been a child of enchantment, madness and death.
“Like Hitchcock, Taylor pitches extreme and gothic events within a hair’s breadth of normality.”
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
“A psychological tingler with more than a touch of the Daphne du Mauriers … this author knows precisely how to wield suspense.”
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
“This cleverly crafted jigsaw is a masterly portrait of a seemingly guilelss narrator … Beautifully measured … Taylor’s understated thriller generates a dark, hypnotic pull.”
TIME OUT
“Classically paced and proportioned … A slow burner, most cunningly constructed, which plays havoc with your sympathies.”
LITERARY REVIEW
“Clammy … atmospheric … showing admirable control of matters psychological and a convincing feel for the gloom of unhappy families.”
THE TIMES
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel was originally published in 1993. This and two of the author's other three stand-alone novels, The Raven on the Water and A Stain on the Silence, were republished in 2007 by Penguin. I have read all three of these Penguin reprints now and I have to say that this one is the least engaging of the three. Having read the "one-line" reviews on the book's cover indicating what a suspense-filled thriller this is, I kept on expecting the story to pick up in intensity or take some unexpected turn, but it never did. The story isn't exactly boring, but it's pretty unimaginative throughout and has a non-surprise ending. While the style of writing is very good, I think most people would nonetheless give up on this one part way through. (One is sometimes left with the impression that newspaper and independent reviewers must be paid to make sweeping statements of acclamation!)
If you haven't read Andrew Taylor before, don't start with this one. The Raven on the Water is definitely more interesting. He also has two British detective series, and not having read any of those stories as yet, I'm wondering if they aren't a better read than his stand-alone novels. I shall have to investigate. I'm not quite ready to give up on this author just yet.
If you haven't read Andrew Taylor before, don't start with this one. The Raven on the Water is definitely more interesting. He also has two British detective series, and not having read any of those stories as yet, I'm wondering if they aren't a better read than his stand-alone novels. I shall have to investigate. I'm not quite ready to give up on this author just yet.
Format:Paperback
Ohh I loved this...a lovely slow burning, suspenseful gothic novel with more than a touch of the Daphne du Mauriers. Beautifully written with a gripping plot and one of my favourite fiction devices; the possible unreliable narrator. Subtle, disturbing, beautifully paced with memorable characters and a story that creeps along with a whispering dread to the shocking denouement. Fab!
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