Bitter Orange [Hardcover]

In the vein of Shirley Jackson's bone-chilling?In her finely crafted psychological thriller?Fuller is a master of propulsive action, making the ground spin as each unreliable narrator takes center stage. Every measured sentence builds on itself with the crumbling estate providing the saturated backdrop for this ultimately macabre tale. [Page by page, Fuller enchants us with prose as thick as clotted cream, only for us to realize too late that shes been ensnaring us at every turn.Lovely and lush prose that only adds to the sense of dread pervading the novel . . .?Bitter?Orange is an absorbing exploration of the many lies we tell to othersand to ourselves.English mansion? Check. Dazzling couple? Check. Yearning outsider? Now you have all the ingredients for a psychological powder keg, ready to explode during the summer of 69.Fuller is a master of the quietly eerie; shes excellent at creating an aura of pervasive dreadand sustaining it till the very last page.Fullers writing is seductive, brooding, twistyit unsettles you quietly, slowly.Cannily releasing clues on the way to an explosive finale, Fuller moves fluidly between the time of the story and a period 20 years later . . . The lush setting and remarkable characters make for an immersive mystery.Fuller, a skilled stylist, is very good at letting you know Frances by degrees and at describing a setting in which the ordinary rules of life feel suspended . . . You can taste the wine, smell the musty fabrics and the overripe fruit, hear the hum of lazy insects and track the teasing suggesting that something will go terribly wrong.A literary mystery that fans of Sarah Waters, Daphne Du Maurier, and Shirley Jackson wont want to miss. . . . This high intrigue, along with the inherent eeriness of the setting, makes?Exquisitely written and carefully paced,?Like Daphne du Maurier's?Claire Fuller is such an elegant writer and this book is incredibly atmospheric, vivid, and intriguing. I had to keel£Â