Thursday, June 6, 2019

The Night Visitors, Carol Goodman


TITLE: The Night Visitors
AUTHOR:  Carol Goodman

PUBLISHER:  William Morrow
PUB. YEAR: 2019
SETTING:  Upstate New York
FORMAT:  - print/library ( 320 pp)
RATING - 4/5

The Night Visitors starts out like a story many of us have read before. Alice is a young woman who seems to be fleeing an abusive relationship.  She and 10 year/old Oren board a bus from an affluent New Jersey community and are headed for upstate New York.  Alice has contacted an agency for victims of abuse and has arranged to have someone meet her and Oren when they get off the bus and take them to a safe house.

Mattie is the 50-something social worker who meets the pair but she immediately sees something in Oren that reminds her of Caleb, her little brother who died over 30 years earlier when he was about 10.  Instead of transporting them to the shelter run by nuns, she takes them to her old, run-down Victorian home since a storm is looming.  It is here that it becomes clear each women has been hiding secrets which are slowly revealed.

The old Victorian home and looming storm make this not only a very dark story but also a very atmospheric one with even a few elements of the supernatural.  Told through the POVS of both Alice and Mattie, this was a page turner and, despite a few unrealistic twists and the mention of using pay phones today (haven't they been removed everywhere?) this one was still a fun read.

25 comments:

  1. I like the sound of this one, even if it does have pay phones. I can't remember the last pay phone I saw but now I'll be on the lookout for one.

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  2. We still have them but I think hardly used!
    I like the sound of this one.

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    1. I guess there still are some in the us, just not in my areas.

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  3. I had checked this one out from the library, but ran out of time before it was due. Sounds good - I'll need to grab it again.

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  4. That's funny that the pay phone issue bothered you; that sort of thing throws me off as well.

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    1. I think I look for weird stuff like that when I read - and in movies as well LOL

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  5. Ooh, this sounds good! Now I want to search Google and find out if any pay phones still exist.

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    1. I saw a 2017 post that stated there were still 100,000 pay phone throughout the US.

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  6. This one sounds good. Yes we still have pay phones down here in the deep south. You see them every once in a while in small towns especially.

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  7. This sounds really good! I have only read books by the author under her pseudonym. I need to give this one a try.

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    1. Wendy, now I need to know her pseudonym? to Google I go LOL

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  8. Hi Diane,
    I have enjoyed Carol Goodman's books in the past. I've read The Lake of Dead Languages, and two others, the titles of which I forget. I have The Seduction of Water sitting within my Nook--it looks good. I'd definitely like to read this new title. I especially enjoy the upstate New York settings.

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    1. I like the upstate NY settings as well and have read several of her books as well.

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  9. Yes, payphones still exist in the U.S.

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  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  11. Ooo… I'm definitely intrigued by this one - I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Thanks for sharing!

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  12. I like Goodman a lot. She always delivers good, atmospheric thrillers that keep me guessing. Glad you enjoyed this one as much as I did.

    Occasionally, I'll see a pay phone here in Arizona, but not very often. I was shocked to see a bank of them at the New York Public Library when I was there last week!

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  13. Sounds promising. I still see pay phones around here and there. Always at liquor stores and at camp last week there were so many... because they can't get a signal up there.

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