The Stranger House

by Reginald Hill

[empressbrooke]

Reginald Hill has written dozens of books, but this is the first one that I have read. The Stranger House follows two people, Australian mathematician Samantha Flood and Spanish ex-almost-priest Miguel Madero, who travel to a small British town called Illthwaite to search out the history of their respective families. The novel is filled with a lot of coincidences, a small dash of the supernatural, a bunch of eccentric and memorable characters, and so many twists that you're still twisting in the final pages.

It could be really preposterous, the way that Sam and Miguel arrive at the exact same moment with interlocking stories. However, if you take Miguel at his word that ghosts have guided him through his life to this moment, and accept this as a semi-ghost story, it becomes easier to swallow as well as a more interesting story.

I liked the relationships between everyone, and I especially liked that the female lead is a mathematical genius. How often does someone create a female character like that? There is also a generous sprinkling of various parts of history, which is always a plus. I'm definitely going to check out a few more of Hill's novels, including a long-running series about Yorkshire detectives.