This indirectness, which in cruder hands might have led to yawning insurrection in the reader, becomes essential to the novels unsettling power' - Claudia Fitzherbert, The Daily Telegraph Waters gives herself a sort of handicap with the dull doctor's narration. But she is also an artist compelled to experiment. 'Waters is often described as a brilliant storyteller, and so she is. Acute and absorbing' - Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times 'Displaying her remarkable flair for period evocation, Waters recreates backwater Britain just after the Second World War with atmospheric immediacy. The writing is subtle and poised' Joy lo Dico, Independent on Sunday But it is also a brilliantly observed story, verging on the comedy, about Britain on the cusp of modern age.

While at one turn, the novel looks to be a ghost story, the next it is a psychological drama. 'By now readers must be confident of her mastery of storytelling. Waters' persistent picking apart of class is fascinating' - Tracy Chevalier, The Observer She is particularly good at depicting Hundreds, the dilapidated Georgian pile that dazzles.

'Waters writes with a firm, confident hand, deftly building an atmosphere that begins in a still, hot summer and gradually darkens and tightens until we are as gripped by the escalating horror as the Ayres are. As well as being a supernatural tale, it is a meditation on the nature of the British and class, and how things are rarely what they seem. 'It's a gripping story, with beguiling characters.

The little stranger book review