The Visitors

I LIKED the way Mascull takes a pot boiler, 19th century locale, and tweaks it with a child who is blind, deaf and mute, and, just as a sweetener, sees ghosts. Frankly I was dubious, but about two-thirds of the way through we have a murder mystery and all of the heroine's amazing giftedness bears fruit. This is Mascull's debut and the child's voice isn't too convincing, and the plot isn't far from derivative. However, she more than compensates with a well-researched context in late Victorian England and even the ghosts seem scientifically explicable until it doesn't matter too much any more, because I was just enjoying the story. The novel is paced well, never slows much, and everything is tied up really neatly by the end. So, what I show more thought was going to be Mills & Boon with a twist, turned out to be less easy to categorise. I look forward to Mascull's follow-up. show less

Take Hellen Keller, put her in Victorian England, give her back her sight (after she meets the miracle worker and learns to sign), and then add a dash of war (2nd Boer War), and a bit of the supernatural. A fun read, some very fine prose.