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THE STRANGER HOUSE
by Reginald Hill
HarperCollins, July 2005
Abridged audiobook pages
15.99GBP
ISBN: 0007209916


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

There are times when an abridgement of a novel can hurt the author's original intent in telling a story. That is the problem with this audio adaptation of Reginald Hill's novel THE STRANGER HOUSE. There is too much that is going on inside the novel, but because of time constraints it was removed. So it is possible that I have missed quite a bit by not having read the book in its original form.

The title refers to a former monastery converted into an inn in the village of Illthwaite in Cumbria, England. This would be the place where travelers would often stay when passing through. Currently there are two strangers in town, each with their own reason for being there.

Sam Flood is a mathematician who has come all the way from Australia to research her family history. Ever since she was a little girl, she has been obsessed with a historical injustice done to Australian women close to a hundred years ago and she wants to look into it further, especially with how it pertains to her paternal grandmother. She believes that the village of Illthwaite has the answers, but the people living there are close-mouthed, not wanting to part with the secrets of their small home.

The other stranger is Miguel 'Mig' Madero, a Spanish Catholic who once studied for the priesthood but who felt forced to leave his calling after experiencing strange visions and unexplained bleeding from the palms of his hand. Mig has come to Illthwaite in order to study the lives of English Catholics during the Reformation era and particularly to research the fate of an ancestor who was allegedly killed during a 1588 shipwreck, but with evidence to the contrary.

The narrator goes back and forth exploring both of these characters' stories and coming up with a strange connection between the two. He also makes visits to the past in order to bring slowly to light what the village inhabitants have been hiding for centuries. Sam and Mig are two opposing personalities who constantly clash with each person's faith or beliefs, but unbeknownst to both of them, they are both in search of the same thing.

I felt incomplete once I finished listening to the audiobook and I don't think listening to it again would have made a difference. THE STRANGER HOUSE is an ambitious project for Reginald Hill and it should be given all the time and attention. Perhaps, somewhere in the future, I will pick up the book and get the story once again. I can't help but feel that I've missed a lot.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, January 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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