Waters has determined to scare the pants off her righly devoted audience. She succeeds unequivocally. You'll want to sleep with the light on

The knowledge that something nasty is around the corner lends the narrative a compelling sense of unease. The richness of Waters' writing ensures that the air of thickening dread is very thick indeed . . . Waters is a brave writer. The Little Stranger is an engrossing, hugely enjoyable read with set pieces guaranteed to make anyone with a pulse gibber in fright

By now readers must be confident of her mastery of storytelling . . . While at one turn, the novel looks to be a ghost story, the next it is a psychological drama . . . But it is also a brilliantly observed story, verging on the comedy, about Britain on the cusp of modern age... The writing is subtle and poised

The Little Stranger is a proper muscle-flexing story - I was in awe and just did not want it to end

Displaying her remarkable flair for period evocation, Waters recreates backwater Britain just after the Second World War with atmospheric immediacy . . . Acute and absorbing

Waters is often described as a brilliant storyteller, and so she is. But she is also an artist compelled to experiment . . . Waters gives herself a sort of handicap with the dull doctor's narration. This indirectness, which in cruder hands might have led to yawning insurrection in the reader, becomes essential to the novel's unsettling power

A creepy, sensual 1940s noir with all of Waters' trademark depth and intelligence. And the best, most ambivalent male narrator (written by a woman) since The Secret History