The Night Visitor

The Night Visitor by Lucy Atkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Olivia is a telegenic academic historian desperate for an idea for her next commercial book. She happens upon a Victorian diary, a deathbed confession that one of the first woman doctors murdered her abusive husband. Vivian is the gatekeeper of said diary, who must be won over.

I’ve looked at other reviews on Goodreads, and people clearly enjoy this book. I did too—to a degree. Atkins summons up a great sense of menace. But I’m not a fan of creating suspense by talking at length about something which is yet to be explained, especially when there’s precious little reason to obfuscate the facts. For Olivia, it’s the “dreadful” thing that her husband has done. For Vivian, it’s the loss of of her dear friend “Bertie”.

Neither woman is especially likeable, and both appear to be liars. Vivian, delivered in the first-person present, lies by omission, if she’s lying at all. As she slides back and forth between the present and her constant reminiscing, the abrupt change of tense can be a little confusing. Olivia, by contrast, is delivered in the third-person perfect from Olivia’s POV. Rather than stating, “She lied,” or, “She couldn’t bear to tell her friend the truth,” Atkins resorts to having her do things she would undoubtedly lie about were she to be caught.

A warning for anyone who likes their stories neatly tied up: you are likely to be furious with the ending.

SPOILER ALERT: If, like me, you’re left wondering who was responsible for chopping off the daughter’s hair, I’ve seen one potential explanation. It was Vivian. This is based entirely on a phrase she uses about the night in question: “The whole episode is a little hazy…” p333. Vivian denies it, but since Atkins offers no other explanation, this is as close as it gets to an answer.

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