Magpie Lane

Magpie Lane
Genre : Fiction
Published : 16 Apr 2020 - Quercus
When the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers.

As Dee looks back over her time in the Master's Lodging - an eerie and ancient house - a picture of a high achieving but dysfunctional family emerges: Nick, the fiercely intelligent and powerful father; his beautiful Danish wife Mariah, pregnant with their child; and the lost little girl, Felicity, almost mute, seeing ghosts, grieving her dead mother.

But is Dee telling the whole story? Is her growing friendship with the eccentric house historian, Linklater, any cause for concern? And most of all, why was Felicity silent?

Roaming Oxford's secret passages and hidden graveyards, Magpie Lane explores the true meaning of family - and what it is to be denied one.

Reviews

The word-of-mouth success of lockdown...riveting, twisty, page-turning stuff

The Guardian

It is a long time since I have enjoyed a book as thoroughly as I enjoyed MAGPIE LANE, which reminded me variously of Iris Murdoch, Ruth Rendell, Donna Tartt and Daphne du Maurier. I adored the narrator, and it was an utter joy to relish Atkins's wonderfully skilled and unobtrusive writing and lose myself in the mystery

Sarah Perry

Tender, creepy and gripping

Sunday Times

A creepy, suspenseful thriller set against the dreaming spires of Oxford

Independent

Deliciously enjoyable

Sunday Mirror

I fell hard for the beautiful writing and ghostly mood of MAGPIE LANE. Dee, a riveting Russian doll of a character, had me in her thrall from start to finish. Highly recommended

Louise Candlish

The page turner you've been looking for. Sly, witty and gripping...I loved it

Naomi Alderman

An excellent psychological thriller that’s hard to put down

Daily Mail

The characters are well developed and there’s a real sense of menace

Good Housekeeping

Tense, perceptive and meticulously plotted, MAGPIE LANE is an intelligent exploration of privilege, belonging, grief and parental responsibility

The Observer

MAGPIE LANE is a rare thing . . . Simply stunning

Daily Express

Atkins dramatically delves into what it means to be family and how terrible this bond can be

Woman Magazine

Creepy and compelling

The Times

MAGPIE LANE is an unputdownable novel that will keep you reading long into the night

Culturefly

A gripping read with great characters

Prima

Beguiling, brilliantly creepy, and an utterly compelling read. Lucy Atkins has created such a complex character in Dee: I rooted for her, and yet was suspicious of her; swept along by her love story, but worried for her. A wonderful story

Claire Fuller

Immersive, unsettling and hugely addictive. I loved all the Oxford details. Superb"<br />

Will Dean

MAGPIE LANE is deliciously dark and keeps flipping your certainties on their head from start to finish

Alexandra Shulman

It’s taken many false starts to find a book to properly carry me away during this lockdown and this was it. Gripping as well as beautifully written. Thank you, Lucy Atkins it was such a relief to be lost in your pages

Polly Samson

A sinewy, supple and gorgeously satisfying triumph

Lucy Mangan

Tense, perceptive and meticulously plotted, MAGPIE LANE is an intelligent exploration of privilege, belonging, grief and parental responsibility.

The Guardian

Chilling.

I paper, “40 best books for summer”

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