After a visit recently of my Mum in law, she decided to let me borrow a book that she had just finished with the simple words - "See what you think.....", how could I refuse!

The book in question is "The little stranger" by Sarah Waters.

Set in a post war summer in rural Warwickshire, doctor Faraday is called to attend a maid at the manor house Hundreds hall, home to the Ayres's for over 200 years, and former work place of Dr Faraday's late mother.

Dr Faraday actually looks forward to seeing the grand house as he was completely in love with the house as a chid, with the last visit there being when he was but a child, and to receive a medal from the previous Lord Ayres, though time has obviously been very cruel.

Dr Faraday is amazed to see how badly the house has suffered with the ravages of time, and after treating the young maid (who seems to be truly frightened of being alone in the house), attends a tea with Lady Ayres and her two children, frumpy and very sensible Caroline, and war hero Roderick, who has returned home to look after the finances of the now dilapidated house.

Dr Faraday soon is made to believe he is fiend of the family, and due to his unhealthy obsession with the house and the ageing family within, starts to visit more often.

Soon however unexplained things start to happen, could they all be within the fragile minds of the eccentric and damaged Ayres's, or are there more sinister forces afoot?

This book is extremely slow going, with the first half of the book seemingly going nowhere, and even that is done at a gentle pace!

When the so-called accidents start to happen you do question, even before the author suggest it, whether it is simply a condition of fragility of mind on the part of the family, though there is always much back up of the paranormal side from the young maid, who is convinced there is something within the house with them.

Even when the accidents happen you get no feel of threat or menace, just a sense of "at last something has happened", and for this fact alone I really felt cheated with this book!

There are three moments within the book that do take you by surprise, and the unthinkable does happen, but these I am afraid do not save the book for me in the slightest.

I was really disappointed after reading this book, not only was it a laboured affair (nearly two weeks in fact, an unheard of amount of time for me!), but I felt no enlightenment once completed, nothing was really explained and I get the idea that the author leaves the reader themselves to make any unanswered conclusions to the book, which if I were that way inclined would make me a much deeper person than I am, but for me I like a good conclusion with explanation included!

Price wise this has a RRP of £7.99, but is available for less via www.amazon.co.uk

Thanks for reading x

ISBN 978-1-84408-606-1