The little stranger" by Sarah Waters

"The little stranger" by Sarah Waters - A very slow affair. 

This book is published by Little brown book group in 2010 and has 512 pages. 

Dr. Faraday is called to an old mansion known as Hundreds Halls, home of Ayres, to treat their servent. He befriends the family. The land lady Mrs. Ayres, a widow. Daughter Caroline, a not beautiful young lady. Rodrig, a young invalid soldier. In a party the docile family dog bites the face off a girl. This starts a sequence of events. 

Why did the docile dog attack the girl? What's special in Hundred halls? What are the black smudges? Is there something?

The stories pace is languid. One starts wondering what the real story is. It takes a very long time for the  mention of 'something'. And it takes inordinately long time for that 'something' to make its presence felt to more than one person. 

Dr. Faraday appears to be strange character. Reader asks himself,  why does he want to cling on to Hundreds hall? Caroline is another mysterious character. Why she does what she does is always a mystery. 

Its a very slow story where nothing much happens for long stretches. As a result reader starts losing interest. The story has little drama,  little emotions but there is an undercurrent of fear. 

Poltergeist, Fantasma, Ghost are all mentioned,  but nothing is confirmed. There is only an ominous presence felt without actually appearing. 

At the end I wondered,  what I read after spending so much time?

Why did I read this book?  Blurb.  

What I didn't like? Pace.

What did I like? Undercurrent. 

 AVOID.