This is every bit as accomplished as Northedge’s debut The House Guest, with the same precise and finely tuned use of language, by no means always a given in the genre.’ FINANCIAL TIMES Re-read the last ten lines of part 2. Why does the son think his father might have said or felt something else? Tony L. Clark holding a photo of George Floyd among protestors in front of the Cup Food Store where George Floyd was killed. 

The end of the story, particularly the final line, is a puzzle. What is it which the narrator won’t forgive? What has his brother done? Like their father’s experience of sustaining himself in war by thinking of his ‘kingdom’, the roots of the unspoken rift are in warfare and land. Jim too has focused his mind while under fire in the Second World War by thinking of ‘That old place of ours.’ Jim, once the excited boy with ‘bright’ eyes of excitement about his discovery of the greenstone and Tom’s stories, has clung to those memories. yet he now speaks of them with casual insouciance, casually referring to ‘that old Maori’ and ‘those greenstones’ which he only ‘seem[s] to remember trying to give away’. They are now just a ‘souvenir’. This is a gripping plot that starts with a slow, spine tingling start that feels very creepy and unsettling, and then…..and then comes a switch in the narrator….think total gear change and foot flat on the accelerator pedal! He worked as a journalist for various New Zealand newspapersand as a scriptwriter and director of documentary films for theNew Zealand National Film Unit until 1957, when he left for All of this makes for an increasingly disturbing first half of the book, as the atmosphere gets more intense and Jess begins to feel she is going off the rails. The reader is drawn into her perspective and as things get more bizarre and creepy there is the realisation that it is not going to end well.Upon his return to Missouri, Scott sued for his freedom on the basis that his temporary removal to free soil had made him legally free. The case went to the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and the majority eventually ruled that Scott was an enslaved person and not a citizen, and thus had no legal rights to sue. Isolated, dilapidated, decaying, their new home is so much more than a doer upper. Narrated by Jess you feel that the move was very much her husband’s decision and she just went along with it. However she wants the idyllic life in the countryside to become a reality for their two children. This is a creepy and. unsettling read. What do you know about the people who lived in the house that you've just bought? Jess and Pete move from London to the countryside. They have bought a large rambling house in urgent need of some repairs and with outhouses/barns that need doing up so they can rent them out. However, from the moment they arrive at the house and wait for the removal lorry to arrive Jess has reservations about the house. She has a bad feeling about the place and is convinced they are being watched. The initial atmosphere of the book felt unnecessarily exaggerated. As we learn more about each of the characters it was clear that the reality of the problems were more character driven. By the time we were told exactly what was happening and why, I found myself quite disengaged. Everything felt simply too much. I have given it three stars, only because I didn't like Jess very much. If I'd felt more for the main character it would have been four stars. I would happily look for more novels by this author and would recommend the read as something twisty and atmospheric.

Lastly the settings. I loved the house. It was a character in itself. It was cleverly written to seem both spooky and not, depending on how you were looking at it. There was enough description to give you an idea of the house, but the main focus of the story was on the characters and their thoughts, feelings and actions. The author gradually feeds into the story some of the reasons that Jess and Pete have left London. A break in at their house had disturbed them all and left their small daughter Rose quite traumatised. There is also a hint of something more that Jess is not letting on.

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Unfortunately, it was spoiled a bit by the repetitive writing and the unlikeable characters. Jess was the absolute worst – whiny, self-centered and naive – and her marriage to Pete made little sense as he also came across as an utter d-bag. I also didn’t get why Jess ever became friends with Eve. She was lonely and desperate – I understand that much – but surely if your husband and your new friend who you’ve only known for a couple of weeks started behaving so inappropriately right in front of you on the very first meeting, you’d cut that off? The children were also very irritating. In fact, the only character I did like was Graham the renovator, largely because he seemed to be the only one who spoke any sense and got himself outta there asap. The ending feels rather unsatisfactory - the bit where everyone is supposed to get their just deserts does not quite pan out. I'm undecided whether that is a strength or a weakness. The People Before starts strongly with Jess and her husband Pete and their two young children wondering quite what they have done. They’ve left bustling, multi-cultural Walthamstow for a new life and have bought a draughty run-down pile in the Suffolk countryside which is need of serious renovation. The people before”, though not in the story as characters, influence much of the story and the attitude of the characters. The father has no time to think of them except when Jim displays the greenstone adzes. Even then the father does not relate to the “people before”; his thought is only about how much they could be worth. The people before were so intimately connected to the land that they have carried the old man to the spot where he was born so that he could see it one more time before dying. The narrator’s father on the other hand frequently talks of selling the farm when the going gets tough. The land is just something that he owns and puts to work.

Whilst there weren’t really any surprises in The People Before, therefore, it is a well-constructed thriller, especially in terms of pace and atmosphere. Charlotte Northedge has done an excellent job of developing tension in the novel’s opening act, ratcheting that up in the mid-section as we realise the extent of the danger that Jess and her family are in, and then releasing it all in an explosive final act. Whilst I personally felt that there were a few too many skeletons in Jess and Pete’s family closet – and that this sometimes detracted from the mystery about ‘the people before’ – North also does an excellent job of tying up the various interwoven strands of the plot by the novel’s end.

Rose is unsettled by the house and sees the small cupboard in her room as a safe place and Jess finds her staring out of her window at night sobbing. She saw the retreating burglar and is frightened that he may return. Sara, one of the school gate mums, tells her the local scary story about a young boy who drowned at Maple House and thinks she recognizes Eve but is unsure why. That said, I absolutely cannot fault the way in which the reader is drawn into the perspective of Jess and Eve, and the way that Charlotte Northedge controls the viewpoints to layer the interweaving strands of the story and build up the suspense whilst also leaving the major revelations for the very final chapters. Whilst the characters didn’t invite my empathy, I was still drawn into their respective stories and stayed with them to the end, which is testament to a tale well told! The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has called a rally for Monday 27 November, 1pm at the GPO, O’Connell St. This is a most welcome response and we urge everyone to attend and show that the vast majority of the country have no time for the fascists and the far-right and will stand up to them. We encourage all workers in the city centre to walk out and join the protest. Charlotte Northedge creates a riveting psychological study of self-deception and creeping dread.’ THE SUNDAY TIMES