The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters ($16)(c2009)

If you are in the mood for a ghost story and you are willing to read one that is 463 pages long, then this is the book for you. Mysterious things begin to happen in an English country manor house after WWII, but they happen with excruciating slowness.

Dr. Faraday, a country physician, is the narrator. In a very class-conscious society, he is a class "orphan." His mother was a maid in the manor house, but he has out-distanced his humble background by becoming a doctor. Faraday has a memory of attending a town fete on the manor's grounds when he was a child. The grand house impressed him, and he stole a piece of moulding from inside the house as a souvenir. Now as an adult, he once again has an opportunity to visit the house, but this time as a physician.

A good deal of the book details Faraday's growing association with and understanding of the various inhabitants of the manor, which has since become rundown and unmanageable. Mrs. Ayres remembers the glory of the manor. Her patrician manner does not desert her although her fortunes have turned down. Her son Rod is a casualty of the war. His injuries cause him constant pain and the management of a failing estate is a constant source of stress. Rod's sister, Caroline, has a plain face and a good heart. Her prospects of a financially lucrative marriage are dim. She's given up whatever life she might have had outside of the manor to help hold on to the estate. Despite what all three of the Ayres family might wish to do other than live at the manor, the manor is where they remain. It defines them, their class, their noblesse.

Faraday arrives to take care of a newly hired maid who appears to be ill. Instead, she says, she is scared of some "thing" in the house but is unable to be more descriptive. Faraday dismisses her fears as homesickness. Next, Faraday tries to lessen the pain of Rod's injuries and appears to be succeeding, lifting the humor in the household, when an unfortunate accident involving a visiting child occurs. Things go not-so-rapidly downhill from there. First Rod becomes manic about saving everyone else in the house from some malignancy. No one, it appears, is immune, as even the housekeeper and maid become victims of mischievous tinkering. Faraday remains convinced that what is occurring is not the result of anything supernatural but the result of pranks by a disturbed individual or malfunctioning equipment.

There is a twist at the end, worthy of Henry James. Before I go into a spoiler discussion of the ending, let me say that I felt compelled to stay through until the end because I wanted to know how Sarah Waters resolved the story, and I WAS happily surprised. Were the 463 pages worth it? Some might find the suspense exquisite, but I often felt the tedium. Nevertheless, I bet this would be a great read for someone of a more patient inclination.

SPOILER ALERT
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Sarah Waters did a great job making the narrator, Dr. Faraday, the ultimate villain. It is HIS growing obsession with the house that magnifies the tragedies that occur. Was he the "you" that Caroline spotted before her fall? I vote yes. Was it the spirit of the dead daughter that haunted the house? I vote for a more poltergeisty thing.
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