The Hidden People, Alison Littlewood
The Hidden People, Alison Littlewood
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Hidden People

Author: Alison Littlewood

Narrator: Paul Mclaughlin

Unabridged: 11 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Arcadia

Published: 10/06/2016

Synopsis

The bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club hit The Cold Season returns with a chilling mystery - where superstition and myth bleed into real life with tragic consequences

Pretty Lizzie Higgs is gone, burned to death on her own hearth - but was she really a changeling, as her husband insists? Albie Mirralls met his cousin only once, in 1851, within the grand glass arches of the Crystal Palace, but unable to countenance the rumours that surround her murder, he leaves his young wife in London and travels to Halfoak, a village steeped in superstition.

Albie begins to look into Lizzie's death, but in this place where the old tales hold sway and the 'Hidden People' supposedly roam, answers are slippery and further tragedy is just a step away . . .

(P)2016 WF Howes Ltd

About Alison Littlewood

Alison Littlewood's debut novel, A Cold Season, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, where it was described as 'perfect reading for a dark winter's night.' Among her recent novels are the highly acclaimed historical chillers The Hidden People and The Crow Garden and the ghost stories The Unquiet House and Mistletoe, all published by Jo Fletcher Books. Alison's novels and short stories have won the Shirley Jackson Award and been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award, and have appeared in numerous 'Best of the Year' anthologies. Alison lives with her partner Fergus in Yorkshire, England, in a house of creaking doors and crooked walls. You can talk to her on twitter @Ali__L, see her on Facebook and visit her at www.alisonlittlewood.co.uk.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Liis on March 22, 2017

I love the cover of this book. I really really do and it was one of the main reasons I chose to request this book on NetGalley (Thanks!) While I have to admit that it was what felt the longest 384 pages, the novel did deliver a certain charm. The writing is similar to 19th century classical books and......more

Goodreads review by Kurt on August 01, 2017

I saw this book recommended in a "best horror novels of 2016" list, which is how I first learned about it. But it lacked the suspense and dread required for horror, and even the few truly macabre elements were more sad than scary. Frankly, this book is as bit of a mess: it’s a hodgepodge of various......more

Goodreads review by Olivier on October 01, 2018

A beautifully well-written story about fairies and changelings and other superstitions deeply rooted in the English folklore that takes its sweet Gothic time to move along but eventually gets there. Recommended on a cold winter night beside a crackling fire with hot tea aplenty!......more

Goodreads review by Red on August 22, 2020

When the news of his cousin’s death reaches him, Albie Mirralls sets out to Halfoak of Yorkshire, determined to not only settle the matters of her funeral, but to unravel the unknowns of her death. Now an outsider of a foreign land far from the bustling streets of London, he can’t help but question......more

Goodreads review by Karen on September 29, 2016

I received a copy of this via the publishers and NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. Worthy more of 3.5 stars than just 3. I was intrigued by the stunning cover and blurb when first seeing this book as I'd not read the authors previous work, The cold Season, but had heard many good thing......more

Quotes

Littlewood does a great job writing in a quasi-Victorian manner throughout and the twist is brilliant Daily Mail

Suitably strange with a twist Kirkus Reviews

This is an intriguing and unsettling scenario. Littlewood's descriptions are picturesque and her prose convincingly dated and beautifully lyrical Sunday Express

Hypnotic and intelligent with buckets of atmosphere . . . Littlewood expertly weaves themes of misogyny and mythology into a psychological page-turner that feels both familiar and fresh SFX

This magical murder-mystery blends the supernatural with the psychological ... surprising, moving and rewarding Daily Express

A skilful blend of the supernatural and the psychological . . . If you enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and the Woman in Black by Susan Hill, this is one for you Mature Times

A sense of tension makes The Hidden People deeply uneasy reading, and it's to Littlewood's credit that she sustains this uncertainty so cleverly, without landing on one explanation or the other till the whole of her tremendous tale is told . . . As mesmerising as it is magical, and as quickening as it is at times sickening, The Hidden People is, at the last, an excellent successor to Littlewood's darkly-sparkling debut Tor.com

The novel has a strange and dreamlike quality to it, almost as if a fog is hanging over the town, and when combined with the bizarre townsfolk and the disturbing mystery at its center, it makes for a book that disturbs the reader as new dimensions unfold piece by piece Barnes and Noble

Littlewood weaves a plot that's as complex as any contemporary thriller, made more labyrinthine by the supernatural elements; a tense atmosphere permeates the novel, growing in strength to become more disturbing with each passing chapter . . . Anyone expecting a gore-fest or a fairy apocalypse will be disappointed, but for those wanting to observe how subtle psychological horror can be, how the deepest fears can be contained in the smallest of actions, and that the gothic novel is still incredibly powerful even in these modern times, this is the book for them. Starburst Magazine

A dark Victorian gothic murder-mystery novel with a chillingly authentic feel Choice Magazine

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List