Magpie Lane

'Riveting, twisty, page-turning stuff' GuardianA 'best books of 2020' pick for BBC Radio 4 Open Book, the Guardian, the Telegraph and Good Housekeeping'The page turner you've been looking for. Sly, witty and gripping . . . I devoured it' Naomi Alderman'An utter joy . . . wonderfully skilled' Sarah Perry'Beguiling, brilliantly creepy, and an utterly compelling read' Claire Fuller'Tender, creepy and gripping' Sunday Times'Spellbinding and spooky . . . a dazzling high wire act, superbly absorbing' Sunday MirrorWhen the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers.As Dee looks back over her time in the Master's Lodging - an eerie and ancient house - a picture of a high achieving but dysfunctional family emerges: Nick, the fiercely intelligent and powerful father; his beautiful Danish wife Mariah, pregnant with their child; and the lost little girl, Felicity, almost mute, seeing ghosts, grieving her dead mother.But is Dee telling the whole story? Is her growing friendship with the eccentric house historian, Linklater, any cause for concern? And most of all, why is Felicity silent?Roaming Oxford's secret passages and hidden graveyards, Magpie Lane explores the true meaning of family - and what it is to be denied one.'Enthralling . . . creepy and compelling' The Times'Deliciously dark' Alexandra Shulman'A gorgeously satisfying triumph' Lucy Mangan'A rare thing . . . simply stunning' Daily Express'I was gripped . . . highly original' Alex Clark'Creepy, suspenseful' Independent'One of the most intriguing narrators since Notes on a Scandal' Sara Collins'Grown-up and cleverly written . . . a dizzying sense of uncertainty' Literary Review'Keeps you guessing . . . a real sense of menace' Good Housekeeping'Wholly beguiling' Mick Herron'Dazzlingly good' Diane Setterfield'Beautiful writing' Polly Samson'Clever, tense and twisty' Amanda Craig'Highly intelligent' Sarah Vaughan'Simply brilliant!' JP Delaney'Darkly atmospheric' Jane Fallon'Clever and creepy' Erin Kelly'Highly recommended' Louise Candlish

It is a long time since I have enjoyed a book as thoroughly as I enjoyed Magpie Lane, which reminded me variously of Iris Murdoch, Ruth Rendell, Donna Tartt and Daphne du Maurier. I adored the narrator, and it was an utter joy to relish Atkins's wonderfully skilled and unobtrusive writing and lose myself in the mystery, The page turner you've been looking for. Sly, witty and gripping . . . I loved it, The word-of-mouth success of lockdown, this riveting exploration of emotional damage is set against the dysfunctional world of Oxford academia . . . It is twisty, page-turning stuff, but Atkins also excels at characterisation: the deliciously horrid master and his new wife, the eccentric scholar writing a history of their creepy house, the closed-off nanny with her own secrets and the girl at the centre of it all., Tender, creepy and gripping, With graceful writing, sharply observed characters including the city itself, and a withering look at the hidebound ways of dusty-gowned academia, this wonderfully atmospheric tale is, at its core, about the true meaning of family

Lucy Atkins is an award-winning author and journalist. She is a book critic for the Sunday Times and the Guardian, teaches on Oxford University's Creative Writing Master's degree and has judged the Costa Book Awards. She has written for publications including the Guardian, the Times, the Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement and many UK magazines. Her third novel, The Night Visitor, has been optioned for television. Her most recent novel, Magpie Lane, was chosen as a book of the year by BBC Radio 4's Open Book, the Guardian, the Telegraph and Good Housekeeping magazine.