Imprint
- Arcadia
- Arcadia
Fiction, Crime & mystery, Historical mysteries, Horror & ghost stories, Fantasy, Folklore, myths & legends
The bestselling author of Richard and 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 half-a-step away . . .
Praise for The Hidden People
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Littlewood does a great job writing in a quasi-Victorian manner throughout and the twist is brilliant - Daily Mail
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There's an amazing sense of place and time in this novel, as Littlewood perfectly captures the literary style, attitudes, and class consciousness of Victorian England - Publishers Weekly
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Suitably strange with a twist - Kirkus Reviews
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This is an intriguing and unsettling scenario. Littlewood's descriptions are picturesque and her prose convincingly dated and beautifully lyrical - Sunday Express
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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
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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
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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
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One of those books that you will probably read over the course of a single night and wonder in the morning where the time has gone . . . The Hidden People is an intriguing piece of work that takes its cue from complex mythology and superstition to weave a timeless story that equally delights and disturbs. - Upcoming4.me
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.
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