A strange book this, apparently the author's first novel. Evelyn Axon is a retired medium, increasingly tormented by spirits in her squalid house - though it becomes clear that at least some of the phenomena are due to her seemingly mentally disabled daughter, Muriel. A parallel interwoven thread follows the latest social worker assigned to their case, Isabel, who is new to the job and already doubting her suitability. She becomes involved with Colin, brother of the Axons' neighbour Florence, although it is not until late in the story that they realise the connection.

Colin is unhappy in his marriage to Sylvia and aggravated by their noisy self-absorbed children. The course of his affair with Isabel is well described and like everything in the book carries an air of depressing gloom. Black comedy elements include the stultifying Christmas scene at Colin's family home and a dinner party he and Sylvia attend which gives Abigail's party a run for its money.

It becomes clear nearer the end that Evelyn's deceased husband was a monster - he enticed Florence into his shed when she was a child, making it clear to Evelyn, who tried to rescue her, that this was his preferred outlet rather than risk fathering another disabled child with her - so it's no wonder that her perception that he has been reincarnated tips her over the edge into taking her final horrendous action. She had only married him because her aunt and uncle, who had taken her in at the age of thirteen when her father died and her mother went into a nursing home, gave her the ultimatum four years later of marrying an employee of her uncle's or being evicted. I found one sentence in her backstory OTT and unbelievable - "She cried as the taxi took her down the drive, not because her childhood had been happy, but because crying passed the time." Some of the incidents in the book are obvious attempts to crank up the misery level and it becomes absurd at times. None of the characters are sympathetic and given all this I can award it only 2 stars, for the quality of the writing. ( )

While this book did keep me reading (just to see what is actually happening with Muriel and her mother), I did not enjoy this book. All the characters are fairly pathetic and their lives are awful. It was quite depressing overall. ( )

Leider kann ich mit dem schwarzen Humor von Mantel nichts anfangen, ich finde die Geschichte nur traurig ( )

Evelyn Axon is an aging medium who lives with her mentally disabled daughter Muriel in a deteriorating Victorian house with a run-down lean-to out back. Muriel’s latest social worker, Isabel Field, is having an affair with the history teacher Colin Sidney, whose sister Florence is one of the Axon’s neighbors. Will Colin leave his wife and three bratty children for Isabel? What is haunting the Axon house? And who made Muriel pregnant? By turns creepy and funny, Mantel’s first published novel is intelligent and eminently readable. ( )

Quite good. Witty, literary, sharp. Expects you to keep up, but accessible. Occult, like Mantel's 'Beyond Black.' Interesting to see her earlier take on the subject. Set in the seventies and featuring a philandering husband, dull jobs, misbehaving children, a social worker and her woeful clients. A lot of misery crammed into a small book and somehow dealt with humorously while not irreverently. Mantel is really a genius. I can't figure out why I didn't love it except that it deals with some pretty heavy subjects. Child abuse, I guess. One of the best horrible dinner party scenes ever written. Full of brilliant lines: "Frank whirled about, Sylvia's coat in his arm like a comatose dancing partner". ( )