Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bergisch Gladbach : Ehrenwirth, 2007. Gebunden,
541 S.
Description
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. . . .… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member ehines
A supernatural/crytographical/archaelogical/historical mystery broadly in the mode that was quite popular post Da Vinci Code. This one enriched by the setting (a Cumberland village) and the more than usually competent execution. Not that there aren't problems: the two lead characters are not good
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enough to carry the weight of the narrative, but they are saved by some interesting and better-done peripheral characters. There's an arbitrariness to the plot which really demands a more prominent role for some notion of providence, but Hill seems ambivalent about this and even appears to rehash some of the religious arguments surrounding the works of Richard Dawkins. Not great by any stretch, but an engaging read. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
This is basically Hamlet-without-the-prince. At the blacker end of Hill's crime fiction, but still within the range of things he covers in his Dalziel and Pascoe novels. But without Dalziel and Pascoe, which is fair enough, given that Hill has been churning out D&P novels for the last forty years:
The two young strangers-in-town who act as POV characters, an Australian mathematician and a Spanish historian, are lively and interesting. However, like Hill's younger police officers in the more recent D&P novels, they don't quite work as convincing characters. He does a much more convincing job with the older characters - the pub landlady, the squire, the smith.
With his usual knack for picking the brighter moments in British history, this book takes the forced deportation of British children to Australia in the 1950s and 60s as one central theme, and the persecution of Roman Catholic priests under Elizabeth I as another. All set, naturally, in a small Cumbrian village where people have been keeping their dark secrets hidden for far too long.
The story comes loaded with a certain amount of mythical portentousness and supernatural visions, which aren't quite essential to the story, but are also not quite explained away as nonsense. This leaves us with the uncomfortable feeling that the author might be expecting us to take the hocuspocus seriously, something I wouldn't have thought a writer in Hill's position and with his undoubted technical skill needed to resort to.
So: good by most standards, but not quite up to what one might expect from Hill.
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he deserves a break. Unfortunately, he doesn't really give us much to fill the gap.The two young strangers-in-town who act as POV characters, an Australian mathematician and a Spanish historian, are lively and interesting. However, like Hill's younger police officers in the more recent D&P novels, they don't quite work as convincing characters. He does a much more convincing job with the older characters - the pub landlady, the squire, the smith.
With his usual knack for picking the brighter moments in British history, this book takes the forced deportation of British children to Australia in the 1950s and 60s as one central theme, and the persecution of Roman Catholic priests under Elizabeth I as another. All set, naturally, in a small Cumbrian village where people have been keeping their dark secrets hidden for far too long.
The story comes loaded with a certain amount of mythical portentousness and supernatural visions, which aren't quite essential to the story, but are also not quite explained away as nonsense. This leaves us with the uncomfortable feeling that the author might be expecting us to take the hocuspocus seriously, something I wouldn't have thought a writer in Hill's position and with his undoubted technical skill needed to resort to.
So: good by most standards, but not quite up to what one might expect from Hill.
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LibraryThing member annafdd
Fun, but lightweight.
LibraryThing member lbowman
just finished Reginald Hill's excellent latest novel, "The Stranger House". Reginald Hill is my favourite writer bar none; he writes murder mysteries but the genre is really just a vehicle for the story, which invariably transcends the usual limits of murder mysteries.
In this one, the two
The mathematician is also very interested in coincidence; from her point of view a lot of things that look wildly improbable are in fact statistically just as likely to happen as anything else, and a good deal more likely than you'd think. Her world also has meaning - mathematical meaning - and it's her job to find it.
They meet by accident, she feels, and by design, he's convinced, on the road to discovering the solutions to two family mysteries that turn out to be somewhat linked (not much; the overlap is slight). The whole question of the book is, of course, the role of coincidence - how unlikely are apparently unlikely events? Are they "meant"? Are they actually unlikely? Is it possible for intelligent people to come to diametrically opposed conclusions about causation and still both produce fruitful theoretical constructs of the world, on which they can legitimately (and usefully) base their actions? The conclusion the book seems to come to is that one theoretical construct works about as well as the other, when applied by intelligent people who keep their eyes open.
It was fascinating, and I liked the characters too, and I recommend the book highly. And I also liked that it took religion, and visions, seriously, and represented its religious and its atheist protagonists, and their worldviews, with equal sympathy and respect.
I later read a review of it that struck me as pretty funny - it complained that "there were far too many coincidences" in the novel. I mean, what did the reviewer think the point of the book was? But since, for that reviewer, coincidence is always, only, nothing but a lame plot device, since after all, nothing CAN be "meant", since there is no God, then a book can't represent a world view in which God exists. And so you have the paradox that a book that examines coincidence and meaning is apparently not allowed to introduce coincidence into its plot structure.
On the other hand that's not an entirely unfair critical approach (though I wouldn't say it applied to this book); because even a book that's all about divine providence (say) had better not rely on coincidence too much, or it will still be a lousy book, riddled with unconvincing plot devices.
In this one, the two
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protagonists are a mathematician and a devout Catholic, a mystic, who was on the road to become a priest when an accident (+ vision) made him realise he had no vocation. He retains his faith, and his sensitivity to the supernatural, and believes that everything is "meant". There's no such thing as coincidence in his world. Now he's a very intelligent guy and does not ignore the evidence in front of him - in fact he constantly revises what he thinks is 'meant' in the light of new evidence - but his world definitely has meaning and it's his job to find it, not to create it.The mathematician is also very interested in coincidence; from her point of view a lot of things that look wildly improbable are in fact statistically just as likely to happen as anything else, and a good deal more likely than you'd think. Her world also has meaning - mathematical meaning - and it's her job to find it.
They meet by accident, she feels, and by design, he's convinced, on the road to discovering the solutions to two family mysteries that turn out to be somewhat linked (not much; the overlap is slight). The whole question of the book is, of course, the role of coincidence - how unlikely are apparently unlikely events? Are they "meant"? Are they actually unlikely? Is it possible for intelligent people to come to diametrically opposed conclusions about causation and still both produce fruitful theoretical constructs of the world, on which they can legitimately (and usefully) base their actions? The conclusion the book seems to come to is that one theoretical construct works about as well as the other, when applied by intelligent people who keep their eyes open.
It was fascinating, and I liked the characters too, and I recommend the book highly. And I also liked that it took religion, and visions, seriously, and represented its religious and its atheist protagonists, and their worldviews, with equal sympathy and respect.
I later read a review of it that struck me as pretty funny - it complained that "there were far too many coincidences" in the novel. I mean, what did the reviewer think the point of the book was? But since, for that reviewer, coincidence is always, only, nothing but a lame plot device, since after all, nothing CAN be "meant", since there is no God, then a book can't represent a world view in which God exists. And so you have the paradox that a book that examines coincidence and meaning is apparently not allowed to introduce coincidence into its plot structure.
On the other hand that's not an entirely unfair critical approach (though I wouldn't say it applied to this book); because even a book that's all about divine providence (say) had better not rely on coincidence too much, or it will still be a lousy book, riddled with unconvincing plot devices.
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LibraryThing member BinnieBee
A very different type of story, but one I really enjoyed reading.
LibraryThing member ezwicky
This is an uncharacteristic Reginald Hill, neither as openly slapstick nor as deep in other directions as his mainline mysteries. It borders on romance, but is saved by classic Hill twists. Nonetheless, it's startling to see a Reginald Hill where a character has stigmata -- psychic things happen in
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this book. A fun read, but may not appeal to fans of the Dalziel novels. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
I was unsure about this when I started, with people seeing ghosts from the 16th century, but actually I really enjoyed it because it is an excellently written thriller, which draws on a number of interesting historical facts. These include recusancy (essentially persecution of non C of E faiths
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from 16-19th century, mainly but not exclusively Catholics) and the forcible transport of orphans to Australia from the UK in the 20th century. Hill skilfully weaves these elements into a gripping tale set in Cumbria that makes you want to keep reading until the very end. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member mrtall
Ooooh! It's a spooky old village, with lots o' odd folk -- and they've got secrets: dark, dark secrets that go way, way back.
The Stranger House is Reginald Hill's entry in a genre which has no name I know, but that corresponds to my description above. English faux historical madcap mystery?
Anyway, in this one two outsiders come searching for history in the Cumbrian village of Illthwaite, and both of course find more than they bargained for, including, naturally, each other. Chock full of eccentrics, intrigue and epiphanies, The Stranger House is a diverting read, but not nearly up to the standard of Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe police procedurals.
Recommended only if you like this sort of book.
The Stranger House is Reginald Hill's entry in a genre which has no name I know, but that corresponds to my description above. English faux historical madcap mystery?
Show More
Something like that. Anyway, in this one two outsiders come searching for history in the Cumbrian village of Illthwaite, and both of course find more than they bargained for, including, naturally, each other. Chock full of eccentrics, intrigue and epiphanies, The Stranger House is a diverting read, but not nearly up to the standard of Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe police procedurals.
Recommended only if you like this sort of book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cathyskye
Protagonist(s): Sam Flood, an Australian math whiz, and Miguel Madero, a
history scholar
Setting: an isolated Cumbrian village in England
Mystery standalone
Samantha "Sam" Flood visits the isolated village of Illthwaite in Cumbria
before attending graduate school in Cambridge, hoping to discover the
origins of her grandmother who emigrated from the place as a child. Miguel
"Mig" Madero, former novice priest now a history scholar, seeks the link
between an ancestor who disappeared during the defeat of the Spanish Armada
and a Catholic Illthwaite family. The quirky villagers know more than
they're letting on. Sam and Mig find themselves joining forces when their
searches intersect. This book spans 400 years and is related by several
narrators who gradually make sense of the mystery. Although too long and
repetitive and lightly seasoned with coincidence, I found myself enthralled.
This was my first Reginald Hill book, and it won't be my last.
history scholar
Setting: an isolated Cumbrian village in England
Mystery standalone
Samantha "Sam" Flood visits the isolated village of Illthwaite in Cumbria
before attending graduate school in Cambridge, hoping to discover the
Show More
origins of her grandmother who emigrated from the place as a child. Miguel
"Mig" Madero, former novice priest now a history scholar, seeks the link
between an ancestor who disappeared during the defeat of the Spanish Armada
and a Catholic Illthwaite family. The quirky villagers know more than
they're letting on. Sam and Mig find themselves joining forces when their
searches intersect. This book spans 400 years and is related by several
narrators who gradually make sense of the mystery. Although too long and
repetitive and lightly seasoned with coincidence, I found myself enthralled.
This was my first Reginald Hill book, and it won't be my last.
Show Less
LibraryThing member darkchocolate
Impossible to put this book down.. Reginald Hill is endlessly inventive. Two very diverse and fascinating characters meet in an old inn, both searching for information from the past, with surprising results.
LibraryThing member stephanie_M
Reginald Hill has written dozens of books, but I think I love this one the best. Having nothing to do with Hill's usual Daziel and Pascoe series, this almost Gothic novel is set in Cumbria, a dark place literally caught in season-long shadow, during part of the year. With a near-seamless
Two strangers meet in a tiny town called Illthwaite, to search out the history of their respective family's. Stranger House is filled with a lot of coincidences, a touch of ghosts, a large bunch of memorable characters, and quite a few twists and turns. I will still trying to figure out which person did the most wrong, buy the end of the novel! Ghosts, dark secrets, both past and present, villagers obviously hiding things from our protagonists, who are brought together supernaturally, a rather large serving of coincidence plus identically brutal identical twins, misty moors and bogs. WOW! It could have been rather preposterous in the way that Sam and Miguel arrive a the same moment with interlocking stories. But Hill is perfectly able to weave them together in a way that's not only believable, but in a very satisfactory way. Not only is Miguel's ability to see ghosts, and have them guide them through his life to this moment, but Sam's character as a female lead is strong, vibrant, and quite likable.
The atmosphere in the novel feels authentic, despite a lead theme of a village with inhabitants that seem still in the 19th century at best. Hill makes it all somehow seem absolutely realistic, proves a meticulous knowledge and background research in as widely separated fields as mathematics and theology and throws many pieces of interesting facts in the story, many of which later proves to be important for the continuing plot. With all of this, it does not feel artificial or far-fetched at all. The clash between the two main characters is both very entertaining and funny and their relationship transforms in a loving way. The story, finally, is both convincingly told and most logical, and above all, extremely thrilling.
Some of the lines from the book I will be quoting:
"When murk began to coalesce into form, she found herself standing by a font consisting of a granite block out of which a basin had been scooped deep enough for an infant to drown in. Around its rough-hewn sides a not incompetent artist had carved a frieze of spasmodic dancers doing a conga behind a hooded figure carrying a scythe."
"He raised his eyebrows comically as he spoke. His eyes had a distinctly flirtatious twinkle. How did he get it there? she asked herself. With an eyedropper?"
"'So what you're saying is you've been getting like e-mails from God dot com?" she mocked. "How do you know it's not just spam from the devil like your confessor tried to tell you?'"
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interweaving of two pasts and the present, the author no only presents us with four murders, but throws in a few details about the Child Migrant Scheme as well. I do wish there was more about this horrible part of England's past in the novel, and that's about my only issue with the story-line.Two strangers meet in a tiny town called Illthwaite, to search out the history of their respective family's. Stranger House is filled with a lot of coincidences, a touch of ghosts, a large bunch of memorable characters, and quite a few twists and turns. I will still trying to figure out which person did the most wrong, buy the end of the novel! Ghosts, dark secrets, both past and present, villagers obviously hiding things from our protagonists, who are brought together supernaturally, a rather large serving of coincidence plus identically brutal identical twins, misty moors and bogs. WOW! It could have been rather preposterous in the way that Sam and Miguel arrive a the same moment with interlocking stories. But Hill is perfectly able to weave them together in a way that's not only believable, but in a very satisfactory way. Not only is Miguel's ability to see ghosts, and have them guide them through his life to this moment, but Sam's character as a female lead is strong, vibrant, and quite likable.
The atmosphere in the novel feels authentic, despite a lead theme of a village with inhabitants that seem still in the 19th century at best. Hill makes it all somehow seem absolutely realistic, proves a meticulous knowledge and background research in as widely separated fields as mathematics and theology and throws many pieces of interesting facts in the story, many of which later proves to be important for the continuing plot. With all of this, it does not feel artificial or far-fetched at all. The clash between the two main characters is both very entertaining and funny and their relationship transforms in a loving way. The story, finally, is both convincingly told and most logical, and above all, extremely thrilling.
Some of the lines from the book I will be quoting:
"When murk began to coalesce into form, she found herself standing by a font consisting of a granite block out of which a basin had been scooped deep enough for an infant to drown in. Around its rough-hewn sides a not incompetent artist had carved a frieze of spasmodic dancers doing a conga behind a hooded figure carrying a scythe."
"He raised his eyebrows comically as he spoke. His eyes had a distinctly flirtatious twinkle. How did he get it there? she asked herself. With an eyedropper?"
"'So what you're saying is you've been getting like e-mails from God dot com?" she mocked. "How do you know it's not just spam from the devil like your confessor tried to tell you?'"
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Subjects
Awards
Theakstons Old Peculier Prize (Longlist — 2007)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
541 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
9783431037043