The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters
Booker Prize : Shortlisted 2009 Plot Time and Place : 1940s, Warwickshire, England Opening sentence : "I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old". Plot summary : A country doctor, Dr. Faraday, makes friends with an old gentry family of declining fortunes, who own a very old estate that is crumbling around them. Perplexing events unfold, which may or may not be of supernatural origin, culminating in tragedy. Review : This is a ghost story, a love story, a critique of the English class system, and a mystery, with a great atmosphere and a great final twist. Rating : 5/5