I have been having a bit of a hard time concentrating on reading lately (and I’ve seen I am not the only one), but Magpie Lane kept me completely captivated. Such an excellent read! Multi-layered characters, a creepy atmosphere, a house seemingly haunted by ghosts, and a gripping plot. I couldn’t put it down!

It all started when Dee met new College Master Nick Law and got offered a job as a nanny for his daughter Felicity. Eight months later, Felicity is missing and Dee and Nick and his wife are turning on each other. What happened? As Dee is interviewed by the police we discover a disturbing story of loss, dysfunctional family, and secrets.

The story is very well-written and you can feel the tension as you turn page after page. The author’s choice of the setting is fantastic. Master House is claustrophobic and with an interesting and dark history, almost a character itself, that gave me goose-bumps all over my body. The author’s beautiful descriptions and the fascinating and intriguing historical facts narrated through the character of Linklater really bring Oxford to life and kept me glued to the pages.

The author put together a cast of brilliant and complex characters: there is Dee, the Scottish nanny with an obsession for mathematics and a mysterious past; Nick, an ambitious professor who cares more about his job than his own daughter; his Danish pregnant wife Mariah, who restores wallpaper; his daughter Felicity, a eight-year-old girl with selective mutism; and House Detective Linklater with a deep knowledge of Oxford.

Magpie Lane is intense, dramatic, and addictive. I couldn’t wait to see how it ended and, yet, I didn’t want it to end. I adored it and I couldn’t recommend it enough!!!

Beautifully written, and a fascinating glimpse into the world of Oxford academia. The story centres on Dee, a nanny who has worked for various Masters at the college, raising and nurturing their children. Her current charge, Felicity, is a selective mute - and she's missing.

The story unfolds through a series of police interviews, with the backstory gradually unravelling. But Dee's story doesn't match up with Felicity's parents' version of events.

I really loved Lucy's writing style - it's so rich and immersive, I really felt like I was part of the Oxford community with all of its traditions and secrets. The characters were brilliantly written, and I loved how the story unfolded gradually, with a narrator we're never entirely sure we can trust. I got a bit nervous about the ending as I'd loved the rest of the book so much and was worried it was going to be a let-down, but it was wonderfully done.

I will definitely be recommending this one - tightly plotted, with beautiful prose, and a genuine sense of unease and mistrust maintained throughout. Five stars from me!

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a good thriller overall. It is a bit long in places and I think there would have been more suspense if it had been a bit shorter. The main characters were good and believable and I felt so sorry for Felicity. I guessed the ending but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

When we first meet Dee she's talking to Nick Law, the new college master. Law's lately of the BBC and he doesn't come with an entirely good reputation: he's a bit of a bully and Dee can sense something of that in their first conversation. She had been planning to return home to Scotland before taking on a new job as a nanny, but somehow she finds herself going to see Mariah, the Danish wife of the master. She's pregnant and looking for help, not with the new baby bit with the master's daughter by his first wife, Ana. Felicity is selectively mute: she does talk to her father, but to no one else. The eight-year-old is grieving for her dead mother and struggling at school.

The process was slow but Dee does build up a relationship with Felicity and gradually she begins to talk to Dee. Nick and Mariah Law are both high achievers, but they have little time for Felicity and time and understanding are what she needs. Dee gives her both, but it's at the expense of her relationship with the master, who would sack Dee without a moment's thought was it not for the pleadings of his wife.

The master's house is some four hundred years old and it comes complete with a priest hole which is in Felicity's bedroom. Law pays a local historian to write a history of the master's house and this brings Dee and Felicity into contact with Linklater, whose quirkiness appeals to Felicity. The three of them explore Oxford's graveyards and tunnels. There's a hint of supernatural but it doesn't (much to my relief) stray into fantasy.

It was a situation which couldn't last and when Dee returns to Oxford after a night away in London it's to find that Felicity has disappeared. Despite the fact that she was clearly in London on her own the police believe that Dee knows more about Felicity's whereabouts than she's letting on.

The characterisation is superb. Dee is middle-aged and we gradually learn that she's obsessed with mathematics, had a baby and that she also has a criminal record, but she's totally devoted to Felicity, who came off the page brilliantly too. Linklater's quirky and totally unphased by Felicity's selective mutism - he just takes her as she is. One of the other great characters is the city of Oxford: you could walk the streets as you read and find that it's brought exquisitely to life. The writing is excellent and I loved this book.

Reviewers often say that a book is un-put-down-able, but this one genuinely is: I finished reading it at three o'clock this morning. The plot is intelligent and twisty: I was very close to the end and still wondering how it would all work out before I realised what had happened. It's very clever and totally satisfying.

It's my first Lucy Atkins book but it certainly won't be my last. I think I'll start with The Other Child.

Well, this book kept me guessing pretty much all the way through. Although I did have a bit of an inkling as to where we would eventually end up, that didn't affect my journey getting there.
We start with a missing child. The eight year old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night. Did she sneak out or was she taken? Fingers obviously start to point to the family, her parents, father Nick and step-mum Mariah, and her nanny, Dee. As the book goes forward in the days after the event, we hear snippets of police interviews, expanded by flashbacks which introduce other characters into the mix, specifically Linklater and his relationship to the family and Dee. A picture of secrets, lies and dysfunction starts to emerge from which, slowly but surely, the truth begins to shine through.
This book gripped me from page one, kept me captive throughout, spitting me out at the end shattered but satisfied. As well as being a cracking mystery, it's a very character driven book with some really, shall we call them, interesting characters that were so well described and developed that they almost came off the page and into my head, so easy they were to connect to. Especially intriguing was Felicity, the missing girl, as she was obviously still struggling from the loss of her mother, not helped by the apparent emotional distance between her and her parents, and displayed this in her behaviour.
There was so much going on around and about the actual case of the missing child. It's also a bit spooky at times, this is enhanced by the setting but I'll leave you to discover all this as the author intends. It's tightly plotted and drip feeds shocks and surprises along the way, most of them emotional in some way. There's no superfluous padding and the story gets on with itself very well.
All in all, a cracking read which delivered exactly what I needed from a book. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Addictive story, compulsive reading and characters who - warts and all - you know you'll be reluctant to leave at the end. Themes are cleverly interwoven - dysfunctional families, a love story, ghost stories and old city legends - cleverly framed in different times within the story layout. And all sensitively and beautifully told.

Lucy Atkins completely wowed me a couple of years ago with her novel The Night Visitor and here, once again, her skilful writing has created another compelling narrator.

Set in Oxford we meet middle-aged nanny Dee following the disappearance of her charge, an eight year old called Felicity. Felicity's father is an Oxford academic and Felicity's mother died, you might conclude, in mysterious circumstances and Felicity has been selectively mute for four years.

This is one creepy thriller and an utterly absorbing one to boot - one of my favourite reads of 2020 so far.

I couldn't put this book down! It was a really good thriller with a really good pace and a gripping story.
Definitely recommended.

Thanks a lot to the publisher and NG for this copy.

I loved Lucy Atkins' debut book The Missing One. It was in fact one of my favourite books of 2014. I've also read her two subsequent novels.

Magpie Lane is Atkins' latest release and the thing that's interested me most about her books is that, though are often centred around secrets and strained relationships, they all feel quite different.

Felicity is already missing when we first meet Dee. She's being questioned by detectives, so in some ways their questions shape the book's narrative, though she doesn't tell them everything, sticking only to what they ask. We however, are privy to Dee's thoughts, including the events leading up to Felicity's disappearance.

Atkins does a great job at eking out Dee's own backstory as well. We're hooked, wondering what what secrets she's keeping. We're given hints about her past, though not offered any context for some time. In some ways she's a good fit for life in Oxford amongst families of leading academics yet she makes a lot of effort to remain distant from those she meets.

Through Dee we follow her nascent relationship with 8yr old Felicity - who has selective mutism since the death of her mother four years earlier. And it's through Dee's eyes we view Felicity's relationship with her father and stepmother.

It's hard to say too much without giving anything away, but—in relaying the months she's spent in the household—the usually circumspect Dee is rather critical of Felicity's father and stepmother. In this sense Dee is very black / white in her judgement (and we eventually learn why). I felt Atkins was less-so and offering we readers the option of taking a more sympathetic viewpoint.

I suspect this discussion would be a good one for bookclubs. I wondered, for example about that fine line (or not) between indifference and neglect. For most of my friends, their children come before everything else, even partners, but I know others may prioritise themselves, other relationships, or even work over their offspring.

I should also mention the house—the old and reverent Master's Lodge—plays a central role here. The setting is eerie and atmospheric and there's a pervading sense of menace. I dislike gothic type novels so was worried we'd dip into the supernatural but Atkins takes us in a different direction. I've ticked the 'thriller / suspense" genre option here, but like her other novels, there's less a feeling of fear, but more one of foreboding.

3.5 stars

This is a lovely paced, chilling, unputdownable thriller
Tension and suspense throughout
Liked the characters roles in the unravelling of the story
I really enjoyed this book
It is definitely different - and not to be missed.

A just read

Thank you netgalley, Quercus Books and Lucy Atkins for allowing me to read and review this book

I loved this book, absolutely gripped by it's pacy atmospheric style and plot. Dee was a brilliant narrator - with something off about her from the start and hints of sociopathy, she was fascinating and a good reminder about how little we know the people we entrust our children to. Highly recommend - for fans of gothic chillers, and authors like Ruth Ware, Nicci French and Barbara Vine.

I can highly recommend this book. As usual I am not going to reiterate any plot details - there are plenty of other reviews out there if that's what you are looking for!

The prose is well written, and the well crafted plot is extremely intriguing - with lots of flashbacks, hidden secrets, a mysterious house in Oxford, and more...

Some excellent characters. I really liked Dee (is she telling the truth, and can she be trusted?) and also Felicity (a strange little girl with a lot going on in her mind). Disliked Nick and Mariah intensely, they reminded me of some real people I have met (so I may be biased!)

I'll look out for more books by Lucy Atkins, and look forward to reading her next novel.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Lucy Atkins’ ‘Magpie Lane’ is full of love and sorrow. This psychological thriller, set in Oxford, is far more than a mere clever puzzle to unravel; it is a study of grief, of damaging parents, and of the tricks our minds play when we are sad.
Dee has been a nanny for over twenty years but she never likes to stay too long with any one family – that is until she meets Felicity (the irony of the name choice!) in whom she recognises a little girl she once knew and a child devastated by an absence. Felicity’s father is Master of an Oxford College. A self-serving narcissist, he has little time for his selectively mute daughter, and his glamorous new wife has even less.
In some ways it is no surprise that Felicity disappears when Dee has a rare night off in London. But where has she gone? Enter police double-act, Faraday and Khan. Atkins arranges the narrative so that the reader is involved simultaneously in Dee’s back story, her employment in the Master’s Lodge and her inquisition at the police station. This effective structure allows the reader to piece together clues, understand the nature of the central characters, and think about how this might all end.
Whilst the denouement is not particularly surprising, the way in which Atkins ends the story is effective. Without revealing all, suffice to say it allows the reader a creative role too! Definitely worth a read. A moving and memorable exploration of vulnerability and an understanding of the power of kindness.
My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Magpie Lane has left me very divided, parts of it I enjoyed it but at other times I was frustrated at where the story seemed to be heading as it was quite dragged out and jumped all over the place and I found the ending disappointing. But having said all that it’s a story that stays with you I just wish it had a bit more editing.

Love Lucy !
Another tale where I was so pulled emotionally . You can tell our heroine is dysfunctional ,u not sure if u are right to want what she wants and she has a lot of her own stuff going on that may or may not be projected onto this family ,a family of show and not much substance bar for their own needs and drives but do they deserve that their child goes missing ?
Their daughter I cared for and I was willing and hopeing that she was with our heroine but is she ?
Then I was conflicted in my thinking .
If she is .with our female lead is she truly safe and happy.was the thinking delusional and if real was it right ?
I loved the link to maths and the idea of in this world something can be wrong but in another it cd be so right .liked the history in wall paper and the different worlds our characters lived In.
Four stars due to the fact I was involved ,I cared and gave me pause .not tied up neatly nessarily and left me willing them to do the wrong or right thing ....u decide..
Thanks as always netgalley and publishers for this advanced copy

This is the first book I have read by Lucy Atkins, but I am certain that I will be reading more by her in future. I absolutely loved this creepy, unsettling read, set in the academic world of Oxford.

We meet main character, Dee, when she is being interviewed by the police. Nanny to eight year old Felicity, her charge has gone missing and Detectives Faraday, and Khan, believe that she knows more than she is telling. As they try to unravel Felicity’s whereabouts, we learn of Dee’s story. Her chance meeting with new College Master, Nick Law, who is moving to Oxford with Felicity, the child from his first marriage, and new wife, Mariah.

As the reader, we are unsure whether Dee is an unreliable narrator. Her secrets are, slowly revealed and it is obvious that she has plenty to hide. However, you cannot help admiring her direct and emotional response to Felicity – an obviously troubled child, who is selectively mute after her mother’s death. Mariah, much younger than her husband, and pregnant; obsessed with her business restoring wallpaper (Dee’s obvious distain for this calling made me smile) and Nick’s attempts to make his mark in his new role – having previously worked for the BBC and the Oxford intelligentsia distaining his celebrity friends, lead to Felicity being left almost exclusively in Dee’s care.

When Dr Linklater, a House Detective, comes into their lives, he begins to unearth secrets about the house’s past. Who lived there before and do they have anything to do with the secret Priest’s Hole, which seems to obsess the young girl living there now? Felicity adores Linklater, who gives eccentric tours of Oxford’s graveyards and is delightfully vague. As he befriends Dee and Felicity, the reader wonders what really happened to Felicity and who is responsible for her disappearance. Loved the atmosphere of this novel and the academic setting, seen from the interesting perspective of Dee, who is both outsider and intimate.

Oh what an engaging book. I've been meaning to put it down for hours but I simply had to know how it ended - marvellous. Rarely have I been so engrossed, thank you to the author! I'm not sure really how much I can reveal other than to say the story concerns a young girl with selective mutism and her nanny who live with her father and stepmother in the Master's Lodge in Oxford - an old house full of ghosts and stories. The girl Felicity has lived through some deep trauma in her life as has her nanny Dee as well but they bond almost as though they are mother and daughter. A lovely heart-warming read. I'd rate it six stars if i could!

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review. I was blown away by Lucy Atkin's The Night Visitor, and drawn by the premise of Magpie Lane, so excited to read this.. It did not disappoint. I was hooked all the way through.
Told from the POV of Dee - a middle aged nanny who's lived in Oxford for decades looking around offspring of various professors at the university - she is currently in a police station being interviewed about the disappearance of 8-year old Felicity, the girl Dee was hired to take care of. Dee narrates her story from the beginning describing meeting Nick, Felicity's dad, and how she became involved with the family. Dee tells the police officers' an abridged version of events but to us the readers she tells us more begetting the question: what else is she hiding from the police? And is she telling us the truth? making her an unreliable narrator.
As the story progresses cracks emerge in the family and tension begins to simmer...
I loved the setting of the book - Oxford comes alive in Atkins's wonderfully controlled prose - and the characterisations. Each character is fully fetched and flawed. Dee is a fascinating protagonist full of pathos. I loved her way of looking at the worlds and her fascination with Maths, and the way she used it to rationalise her actions. At times I was reminded of Leila Slimani's Lullaby which also had similar themes of being a nanny for wealthy, privileged people and class clashes in close encounters. I highly enjoyed this character-led psychological read.
The only thing I would say is that this is a slow-burner and I do wish there were more answers in regards to Felicity's strange behaviour. I found her nightly events a bit repetitive and, for me personally, it began to slow the book down, which is why I am giving this one 4 stars.

This was an amazing thriller, with chilling twists and turns. it reminded me a little of The Turn of The Screw, one of my favourite horror books of all time. It was filled with creepy imagery and was difficult to put down. Recommend for anyone who wants a good thriller.

Let me introduce you to my second 5-star read for 2020 – TA DA! MAGPIE LANE was like my own personal formula for reading bliss. A nanny in an old spooky English manor house in Oxford. Family secrets. A disturbed child who may or may not have some connection to the weird noises and shadows flitting about in the house at night. Characters who ALL have something to hide. All the very things I just LOVE in a mystery!

Dee is a middle-aged woman with some secrets in her past that have seen her live a life looking after other people’s children. She has stayed with many different families and cared for children of all ages and backgrounds, but none has ever got under her skin the same way Felicity has, this pale, mute and unhappy daughter of Oxford’s latest Don.

I immediately loved Dee, from the very moment she shares her self-deprecating humour:

“It may be my functional approach to fashion, but people seem to assume that I’m in charge.”

The picture was painted. A somewhat plain but keenly intelligent middle-aged woman wearing drab clothes to roam the grey streets of a wintry Oxford, wielding an umbrella. I soon realised that I, too, had misjudged her, because Dee was not only smart, but also fiercely loyal to her latest little charge. Not an easy job when you are pitted against Felicity’s father, the arrogant Nick, and her trendy Danish stepmother Mariah.

It wasn’t long until the plot thickened. Nick and Mariah have a dark secret they are determined to keep hidden. Felicity is traumatised. The house, too, has secrets it divulges only at night, in its moving shadows, its silent whispers, its doors that open and close at random, and the spooky little priest hole in the attic where a rotten smell seems to linger. Even Oxford itself, described as: ...a place of dust motes, vaults and arm-span alleys, of angle-poised lamps and dimmer switches, of creaking floorboards and whispers in oak-panelled libraries.” You can see why this was totally irresistible for me! If you are not a fan of the supernatural, don’t despair, because Atkin is always willing to give a perfectly rational explanation for all the things that spooked hell out of me.

Let’s also talk briefly about the unique POV the story is told in. Dee, the nanny, is being interviewed by police who are trying to establish the whereabouts of Felicity, Dee’s young charge, who has disappeared from the house whilst Dee was in London and the girl was in the care of her stepmother. As Dee tells the story of how she came to be the nanny, the full picture slowly emerges in flashbacks and confessions until .... well, that’s something you have to find out for yourself.

I really can’t divulge any more without giving things away, so let me just say that this book was a perfect for me. If you like an atmospheric setting, a creepy mystery and characters that are as mysterious as the setting itself, then you can’t go wrong with this one. Good spooky mysteries are hard to find, and it doesn’t get any better than this. I look forward to reading all the author’s previous books now!