The Visitors by Catherine Burns #blogtour #giveaway

Middle-aged siblings, Marion and John Zetland, rattle around the crumbling Georgian townhouse that has been their home since childhood. Timid and childlike, Marion has never had a job, and her more educated brother hasn’t worked since being dismissed from his teaching post at a boarding school twenty years before. She spends her time with her large collection of cuddly toys, dozing in front of the TV and heating the tinned food on which they subsist. John occupies himself with making model aeroplanes and attending to the visitors in the cellar, an unpleasant part of life which Marion does her best to ignore. Who is she to judge whether it’s right or not? John has always known better than her and, as the reader discovers as the story unfolds, her parents, teachers and schoolmates were never any help in teaching her how to be a person.

Narrated in the close third person, Marion’s character is central to Catherine Burns’ debut novel. Cowardly, unattractive and deluded, she is everything a heroine isn’t supposed to be. And so much the better for it! Even as it becomes apparent that she isn’t as innocent as she makes out, I couldn’t help rooting for her, wanting her to blossom. A midlife coming-of-age story crossed with a thriller, The Visitors plays out somewhere between Lesley Glaister’s The Squeeze (for the horrors of sex trafficking), Hilary Mantel’s Beyond Black (for the dark humour and dodgy psychics) and my own  novel, Underneath (for the centrality of the cellar and bit part for an estate agent).

Claustrophobic, comic and creepy, I recommend you read it. And I’m glad to say that, courtesy of publishers Legend Press, one of you can do so for free. Just leave a comment below saying what the novel reminds you of and/or why you’d like to read it. I’ll randomly pick a winner from comments received by 5 p.m. GMT Sunday 22nd October and pass on his/her email address to the publicist. Unfortunately the giveaway applies only in the UK so please let me know whether or not you’re eligible when you leave a comment.