Trick or Treat by Lesley Glaister

This is a compact psychological thriller about Olive and Nell, who have lived their entire lives separated by one house, but who can't stand one another and have ignored each other for years. Olive was once a beauty, and lived her life unconventionally, refusing to marry her life-long lover Arthur. Now she is morbidly obese and senile, and is cared for by Arthur as he would care for a child. Nell, on the other hand, is trim, and keeps a perfect house. She does have a few problems though, like her fortyish son Rodney, who has just returned from "away" where he was sent for "indiscretions" unnamed, but of which he must have been cured since he's back, right?

As the novel opens, a hugely pregnant woman and her three children have moved into the house in between Olive and Nell. Wolfe, the eight year old youngest child, sensitive and lonely, invites Nell and Rodney and Olive and Arthur to his Guy Fawkes party. For the rest of the book, impending tragedy looms, and it ultimately occurs. Just not the one I was expecting.

This was a wicked good book. For fans of Shirley Jackson.

3 1/2 stars ( )

The dark side of the English village cozy. Glaister is the anti- Angela Thirkell. Worth a read.