The Night Visitor

By: Lucy Atkins

Narrated by: Helen Lloyd, Julia Franklin

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's 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.

©2018 Lucy Atkins (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A deliciously creepy novel fueled by fraud, greed, and violence . . . Fits right in with the best of the psychological thrillers on everyone's lists. Readers of Ruth Ware and Gillian Flynn will love it."—Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Wholly original and utterly unputdownable, The Night Visitor delivers a superb story of suspense with a personality all its own . . . Every book should be as fun to read as this one."—Crime by the Book

"Meticulously plotted suspense . . . Evocative writing heightens the sense of impending doom created by the tale's structure . . . Harrowing." —Publishers Weekly

Not the thriller I’d hoped for

Quite predictable, and took forever to get there. If the book had been a hard copy, I would have skipped forward to the end.

Phenomenal, Original, Brilliant

The experience of listening to this book was like none other.
One cannot begin to adequately articulate the poetic, brutal beauty of what Lucy Atkins has managed to accomplish with The Night Visitor.
It is quite possibly the most inspired, unique, exceptionally well crafted books I’ve ever read.
There is not a word out place or wasted.
It is the rarified experience of reading a true work of art, from the first moment the listener is taken on a once in a lifetime ride and one can hardly ask for more than this.
This novel is at times incredibly frightening, always fully engaging, and has many moments that you cannot help but wonder “what would I do???”
It causes the reader to identify with both of the key characters while you ask yourself difficult questions about who is the real villain, is there a “villain” at all?
Or are these just two very different women drawn into a mystery, a crisis which seems fated.
This book manages to be both terrifying, emotional, thrilling and even fun, all in the same breath.
I can think of no other modern suspense/mystery or genre fiction author who could or has achieved the magic of this work.
Lucy Atkins is a wordsmith and an artist who understands her characters and the worlds they inhabit.
You will not be able to put this one down.
It blew my mind.
The narration is exquisite, equally perfect and carefully cast.
Only Helen Lloyd and Julia Franklin could pull off the difficult task of capturing and projecting the voices of many characters, many emotions, and draw the reader even more deeply into this wonderful web.
This is a book I will buy in hard copy as well, it is truly special, a book I will always recommend and certainly revisit in time.
Thank you for this deeply moving, totally scary, totally thrilling experience.
Buy this book 🦄🦄🦄🦄🦄

Fun game of cat and mouse

I really enjoyed the twisty mind games played by the two women in this book. Neither one innocent, both sympathetic to a degree. Atkins does a fantastic job juggling the relative morality of each woman, and making a case for each woman’s deceptive and bad behavior. I particularly enjoyed Atkins’ depiction of Olivia’s pathological lack of self awareness and Vivian’s stolid honesty. As a psychologist. I was fascinated with this deft and vivid portrayal of two very different psyches coming to combat with each other, and never straying from their essential natures. The ending was perfect (chef’s kiss). A great read! Also, the narrators of the audible edition were fabulous.

Meh

It got interesting quite late and then let the momentum drop. Might consider another by this author if reviews rave about it.

Really fun ride. Love complex characterization

Actually, I like Vivian the better of the two. She is more self-aware and doing the hard work of knowing herself pretty honestly. Olivia's ability to *not* see is remarkable and also sadly familiar. Her lack of empathy or understanding about Bertie was...painful. We are all broken somewhere, but Olivia, of course, is not. Sad and lonely.