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The Stranger House
The Stranger House | Reginald Hill
A stunning new psychological thriller set in past and present-day Cumbria from the award-winning author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series. Things move slowly in the tiny village of Illthwaite, but that’s about to change with the arrival of two strangers. Sam Flood is a young Australian post-grad en route to Cambridge. Miguel Madero is a Spanish historian in flight from a seminary. They have nothing in common and no connection, except that they both want to dig up bits of the past that some people would rather keep buried. Sam is looking for information about her grandmother who left Illthwaite courtesy of the child migrant scheme four decades earlier. The past Mig is interested in is more than four centuries old. They meet in the village pub, the Stranger House, a remnant of the old Illthwaite Priory. They can find nothing to agree on. Sam believes that anything that can’t be explained by math isn’t worth explaining; Mig sees ghosts; Sam is a fun-loving, experienced young woman; Mig is a 26-year-old virgin. But once their paths cross, they become increasingly entangled as they pursue what at first seem to be separate quests, finding out the hard way who to trust and who to fear in this ancient village. The action is fast, there are clashes physical and metaphysical, and shocks natural and supernatural, as the tension mounts to an explosive climax. But fans of Reginald Hill’s will not be surprised to find a few laughs along the way. And very loyal fans might even recognize a ghost from the very distant past. . . . From the Hardcover edition.
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review
Tineke
The Stranger House | Reginald Hill
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Mehso-so

I had expected a regular thriller, but I got an interesting mystery. The writing was good, but I disliked a couple of things. They were a bit problematic. Sam is described as a good persistent woman, but I found her behaviour annoying and over the top for the problem at hand. At first everyone seems to think she's a child, but about halfway the book Mig (who was planning on becoming a priest) has dirty thoughts about her...
Cont'd in comments --->

Tineke does the deed with her and cue the romantic thoughts and looks. Ugh. And this in a story about how an adult (maybe a priest?!) might have impregnated an 11 year old girl. Wrong on so many levels. I found the mathematical angle just didn't add anything. The language of Aussie Sam didn't feel real. Her sense of being above the people of Illthwaite and Mig was annoying and arrogant.
Cont'd in next comment -->
(edited) 3y
Tineke And then the cutting of her own red hair to the point of wounds. Drama! This woman was not the charming spitfire the author portrayed her to be, but just an overly dramatic GIRL sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. And all this about a woman she never met.
So, the mystery in itself was fun, the writing was good enough, but the rest disappointed.
This was my #doublespin for August @TheAromaofBooks.
TBR since June 15th. 2010; 626 pages
3y
Tineke @TheAromaofBooks did you see this? 3y
TheAromaofBooks I totally missed this when you first posted, so thank you for tagging me again!!! At least this one is off the list! 😬 3y
19 likes4 comments