Number 33- The Last House on Needless Street -

A very delayed write up on the last book in my 'cats on the cover' theme. I've been away with no internet connection so it would have been difficult. The copy I wanted had a cat on the cover, the copy I actually received was the one in the picture, so I'll have to make do with the letters preceding "riona" in her name to make the connection.

After the difficult read that was the Bulgakov, I really needed something light and easy and this fits perfectly in that category.

I've heard a lot of things about this.  It seems to be a real marmite book (for non-UK residents, Marmite is a spread that people put on toast that you either love it or hate it, no in between. I think it tastes like a yeast infection would, so you can make your mind up which side of the fence I'm  on in that debate.) 

Ted lives in a run down house at  the end of Needless street. He shares the house with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia. A new neighbour moves into the empty house next door who could blow their world apart, which may not be a bad thing.

The book is narrated in alternating chapters between each of the four characters (yes, the cat narrates her own sequences).

It becomes very obvious, very quickly that all is not as it seems in Needless Street. Catriona Ward takes her time to drip feed us any explanations about the odd events and disturbing behaviour of our protagonists. The atmosphere she creates is creepy and suspenseful and the reader is constantly guessing (in my case mostly wrongly) what is actually going on. I can't say any more about the story without risking major spoilers.

I raced through this book in one day. I don't think it lives up to the quote in the reviews that span the first 6 pages about it taking the crown from Shirley Jackson's Hill House, but it is an extremely dark and brooding horror novel. It brilliantly takes some hoary old horror tropes and turns them on their head in a most surprising fashion.

An easy  8/10 and her other books are next on my shopping list. Count me in the "love it" group on this debate.