Magpie Lane

If you've read While My Eyes Were Closed by Linda Green or Close To Home by Cara Hunter you will probably guess early on how this book ends, but the journey there is so spectacularly narrated with exquisitely rich detail and through the POV of a very intriguing character you will enjoy every step of the journey. I loved every word of this literary thriller, the research that went into it, the realistic protagonists and the eloquent writing were absolutely superb.

I enjoyed this book enormously. Despite the absence of thorough proof-reading, it is a beautifully written novel. The characters, especially the heroine, Dee and the daughter, Felicity,, are distinctive and free from the cliched exaggerations, which mar so many books in this genre. What I particularly admired was the skilful pacing of the book, carefully and thoughtfully building up the tension in a natural way that left me involved in the lives of the characters rather than conscious of the manipulations of the author. Likewise, the ending is free from the melodramatic confrontations so common in other novels. The use of the sustained police interview is most effective in focussing on the key questions and in sustaining the suspense.Given the opportunity, it would have been easy to read through “Magpie Lane” at one sitting. It is not a book for those who want a helter-skelter of violent incidents culminating in a number of deaths to rival ‘Hamlet’. Rather it is a subtle development of a most absorbing situation,somtimes gentle, sometimes sinister. Highly recommended.

When Felicity, a selectively mute eight-year-old, goes missing from her home in Oxford, her nanny, Dee, comes under suspicion - but so does Felicity’s father and his new and very beautiful wife who is expecting their first child. Dee, who has formed a very close relationship with Felicity and an antagonistic one with Felicity’s father, is now being interviewed by the police regarding the young girl’s disappearance, but is she the one responsible for Felicity's mysterious removal from her home?I have to say that despite enjoying the descriptions of Oxford (and one of the character’s stories about Oxford’s past), I found this a predictable and rather unoriginal story and didn’t find it difficult to work out what had happened to Felicity and who was responsible. I’m often disappointed by contemporary thrillers of this ilk, finding them nowhere near as gripping and twisty as promised from the book’s ‘blurb’, but hey-ho, this was okay as a downtime read and a friend of mine appears to be enjoying it now, so all is not lost :-)2.5 Stars

Magpie Lane provides a compelling insight into the claustrophobic world of tradition, snobbery and back-biting in Oxford academia. Dee is hired as nanny to Felicity, the deeply troubled young daughter of Nick, newly appointed as Oxford College Master, and Maria, and his glamorous second wife. Menace is a central theme in the book: the ghostly house, Felicity's terror and selective muteness, Nick and Maria's guilty secret and Dees difficult past. The story moves along nicely, but like most novels of its kind, it relies heavily on coincidence to put characters in the right / wrong place at the right / wrong time. I enjoyed it though. Well worth a read.

A beautifully written thriller, with such well drawn characters that they seem as real as the true life Oxford which is the setting. Among the dark secrets of the dreaming spires it also explores the relationships between parents and children and parents and nannies! A great read. If you liked Gone Girl and have always been suspicious of the goings on in Oxford colleges then you'll love Magpie Lane.