The Night Visitors audiobook

An Erie and atmospheric thriller.Brimming with tension and peppered with the supernatural! Carol Goodman has crafted a creepy and addictive tale that will keep you up far past your bedtime. Unique and clever, this is a story you don’t just read you experience. Miss Goodmans descriptive writing will have you shuttering and covered in goosebumps. The feeling of impending doom and the cold of the snow seep through the pages of this book. There is an element of the Supernatural in this book that added the perfect amount of tension to the story. Alice and Oren arrive in a small town in the Catskills by bus in the middle of the night. Mattie A complete stranger is waiting for them at the bus station. She works for an agency that finds placement for women and children fleaing domestic abuse. Mattie is immediately drawn to Oren, for that reason and the impending blizzard she takes them home with her rather than to the shelter. Mattie still lives in her family home, a once beautiful old Victorian now in need of much repair. The house was as much a character in the story as Mattie, Alice, and Oren. Each of these characters is hiding something and the truth might possibly put their lives in danger. Who can be trusted? And what will happen when the secrets are revealed? A creepy house, a brutal snowstorm, intriguing characters, and dark secrets all make for a compelling story. I really liked both Alice and Mattie, But I was also suspicious of both of them throughout the book. Oren was an adorable kid and I loved his passion for Star Wars. I really wanted everything to work out for all these characters, I just wasn’t quite sure what that was? I loved how the layers of this story were peeled away and the truth was eventually laid bare. Towards the end of this book I was seriously on the edge of my seat, the tension was palpable, and the results startling. A cunning tale that was simultaneously creepy and heartwarming. A unique thriller packed with twists and turns and a shocking end!*** many thanks to William morrow for my copy of this book ***

When Mattie, a social worker, gets the call that a woman and child are arriving on a bus and need her assistance, she's ready. The call came into the hotline at the Sanctuary, and they know Mattie is always available to help out and take those in need--especially domestic violence victims--to a nearby shelter or safe house. But when Mattie sees Alice and ten-year-old Oren get off the bus that snowy night, she somehow can't drop them off at the shelter. Is it because Oren reminds her so much of her own little brother, Caleb, frozen in time forever at the age of ten? Mattie isn't the only one breaking the rules and holding things back, though. Alice and Oren have secrets too. And as the snowstorm around them intensifies, so does the danger. I just love Carol Goodman's books. She has eerie, creepy, Gothic writing down perfectly, and this book was certainly no exception. I was hooked from the beginning. This novel alternates between Mattie and Alice's perspectives. Mattie is older (fifties), living alone in her decrepit home, damaged by her past. "When I told Anita that I didn't believe in God she'd pressed the medal into my hand and told me that I should just say a prayer to whatever I did believe in. So I say my prayers to Anita Esteban, who left her drunk, no-good husband, raised three children on her own, went back to school, and earned a law degree. She's what I believe in." I took to her immediately. You know that there's definitely more to each woman's story than meets the eye, and it's fascinating to watch their stories unfold. Alice shows up with a story about running away from an abusive relationship. Oren, she claims, is all she cares about. Is that true? How much can we trust either of the women? What I loved was that the book had me guessing the entire time. It was incredibly captivating, and both women seemed so real.As for Oren, he was great, too, and you immediately wanted to protect him. The novel definitely has some creepy and mysterious pieces to it. It's less about suspending disbelief than just engaging with the story--becoming a part of it. I certainly found myself spooked a few times. It's a compelling tale, which will keep you engaged, intrigued by the characters, and culminates is a really great twisty (and twisted) story. This one isn't necessarily for the faint of heart; there are some brutal moments here. But what I really loved is that while this can be a very dark story, it's also weirdly sweet, too. I was very touched in places--a true sign that I'd grown to love these characters.Overall, another enjoyable book from Goodman. She has a way of sucking you into the landscape of her books--and suddenly you are engrossed by the story and its characters. This one was eerie, captivating, mysterious, and yet oddly heartwarming at times. 4+ stars. I received a copy of this book from the publisher and Edelweiss in return for an unbiased review (thank you!); it is available everywhere as of 03/26/2019. Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Google+ ~ Instagram ~ Smashbomb

Three lives intersect during the middle of a snowstorm.Alice is fleeing an abusive relationship and is desperate to protect ....Owen ... 10 years old, a Star Wars junkie, who may have a 'gift'. He bonds immediately with...Mattie ... a social worker who meets Alice and Owen at the bus station and takes them to her huge home to stay until she can find a safe place for them. Owen reminds Mattie of her own young brother who died 30 years ago at the same age as Owen.But someone is not telling the truth. All three of them have secrets .. secrets that may be deadly.And as the snowstorm worsens around them, each woman's past will prove be brought to the light, stirring up threats both within and without.This is a well-written tale with unique characters. Several twists and turns will keep the reader glued to the pages from the very beginning to the surprising ending.Many thanks to the author / William Morrow Books / Edelweiss for the digital copy of this Psychological Thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Alice has taken young Oren and fled an abusive relationship. They arrive in Delphi, NY in the middle of a snowstorm and are taken in by Mattie, a social worker. Mattie breaks all her rules when she brings them home to her instead of a local shelter. But the bad weather makes easier to bring them home. She has the space for them, and Oren reminds Mattie of her brother who died over thirty years ago...READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!

A tense, atmospheric thriller, exceptionally well written and with both heart and intelligence at its core.

Alice and ten-year-old Oren have fled from an abusive relationship in the middle of a snowstorm. That doesn't mean that their troubled pasts aren't attempting to catch up with them though. They take shelter with social-worker Mattie who can see some of her own past reflected in this duo. Will that be enough for her to trust and to protect them, once their truths are revealed and their pasts come knocking at her own door?I really adore Carol Goodman and will read any book of hers, regardless of subject matter or topic. I always find them filled with thrilling mysteries and darker subject matters. She delivers thrills and chills but also a heavy dose of sad reality and trauma. The events in this book really affected me and I found myself rooting for all those whose suffering featured here. There was much darkness and many a sinister character (also a slightly supernatural tone that took me entirely by surprise and deeply unnerved me on occasion) but also so much goodness and light that it flooded out all else by the novel's close.

Goodman is a wonderful writer and always dives deep into her characters. This one has a touch of the supernatural— which I always love. A great story, propulsive and moving.

I try to make a point in my leisure reading of being haphazard: I pick up each new book from the shelves or the library because I fancy it in that moment and not because it's part of a series I've enjoyed before, or leads on from the book I've just read, or whatever else. I guess this is a reaction to the fact that so much of my reading life is tied up doing research for the nonfiction books I write, and therefore necessarily structured. Yes, I do break my own fiction-reading rules from time to time, as with the Ngaio Marsh and Margaret Millar "seasons" I recently allowed myself, but most often the process is random.Which makes it odd how frequently I find parallels between two books read in close proximity.I don't think this is because, von Daniken-like, I'm seeing parallels because I want to see parallels -- i.e., seeing parallels that don't actually exist. I think part of what's going on is that so many modern novels, genre or otherwise, tend to explore a fairly limited number of themes (an unreliable narrator! suppressed childhood trauma!) while the other part is just straightforward serendipity.Just a few days ago I was reading (and loving) Johan Theorin's The Darkest Room, a book that's primarily a crime/thriller novel but that could, if you so wished it, be read as a ghost story. And now I've read Carol Goodman's The Night Visitors, a book that's actually a ghost story but that's also a tremendous crime thriller.Alice and ten-year-old Oren are on the run from Ridgewood, NJ, and Oren's abusive father, Davis. They arrive in a small Upper New York State town seeking sanctuary, and are met by elderly spinster Mattie Lane, a thoroughly good person who's spent most of her inherited fortune setting up lifelines and refuges for spouses and children who're trying to escape abusers. Mattie and Oren very soon find a common bond: Mattie's kid brother Caleb was about Oren's age when he was murdered decades ago, and was likewise a Star Wars nut.Oren seems to have psychic powers of some kind -- obviously, he describes them as "the Force." Caleb seems still to be hanging around Mattie, seeking justice for his murder and also trying to protect his big sis, who loved him. Because, although Mattie doesn't know it, she's been wrong all these years about why and how her family died . . .Goodman's a tremendous writer, and I was absolutely glued to this book. At the same time, I wasn't convinced it was actually all that good -- certainly it's a far lesser piece of work than the Theorin piece I mentioned and indeed than Goodman's own The Lake of Dead Languages (2002), which I loved when I devoured it quite a few years ago. As I was reading The Night Visitors I felt there were far too many instances where things were happening, or people were behaving, less according to how they would in real life and more in service of the dictates of a tightly wrought plot. As a single example, Davis tracks down Alice and Oren with not-credible speed in the remote hideout where Mattie's keeping them -- and in the midst of a blizzard, no less, conditions in which outsiders would have special difficulty. In real life he'd surely have taken a lot longer, if he'd ever found them at all (despite the clues he has); the fact that he turns up so quickly aids the rapid progress of the plot, yes, but not verisimilitude.Similarly in service of the plot rather than realism are a couple of places where, in the midst of scenarios where surely the characters would be acting first and thinking later, we suddenly have people coming out with great slodges of exposition: We must keep incredibly quiet because there's a killer after us and a ghost-child in the chilly darkness up ahead, but let me pick this moment to explain a whole bunch of stuff.Leaving aside such concerns, I was having enough fun -- and enough goosepimples -- that I was perfectly okay about leaving my brain at the door. The Night Visitors is a tremendous page-turning thriller along the lines of Nancy Price's Sleeping with the Enemy; it's also a pretty damn' fine ghost story. No complaints from me on either front.

3.5 stars rounded up, full review to follow

Ahhh....loved it! An excellent, creepy and atmospheric novel with a supernatural twist by CG. I love all her stories. Hands down one of my favorite authors.

There are not enough authors who utilize the historic area of upstate New York quite like Carol Goodman does. It should be more accurately called the historically “spooky” region of New York's Hudson Valley, as Washington Irving resided there and wrote about it. This is the territory that Goodman has made her playground for the majority of her novels, and THE NIGHT VISITORS may now be added to that list.The book tells a story that we have all seen before and thereby can make some assumptions as to where we think things will logically end up. In this case, it's an allegedly battered woman escaping from her abuser with her son and running into the arms of a supposed safe haven, all in the midst of a deadly winter storm. However, in the hands of Goodman, there are so many twists and turns that readers will literally give up trying to predict what happens next, and just sit back to rest their spinning heads and go along for a crazy ride straight through to the end.Alice is taking a few buses along with her son, Oren, to accept temporary exile in the town of Delphi, New York. It is in Delphi where Mattie is waiting for them. Mattie works for the non-profit group Sanctuary, and will get Alice and Oren placed in the nearby convent until they can be transferred to a safe house. The man from whom Alice and Oren are running is the embodiment of evil. It seems inevitable that no matter how well hidden they may be, it will not keep Davis from locating them and exacting violent revenge upon them and their new keepers.The snowstorm ends up being so bad that Mattie decides it is best to have Alice and Oren spend the first night at her house, which is much closer than the convent. Once there, Mattie gets their guest room made up and fixes them something to eat. She also spies the bus tickets in Alice's jacket that shows they started their travels in Ridgewood, New Jersey, instead of their expected origination point of Newburgh, New York. Normally, this would not make much of a difference except that Mattie read in the news about a 30-year-old man found dead earlier that day at an apartment in Ridgewood.Mattie is a straight shooter --- a former troubled youth who engaged the aid of Sanctuary --- and confronts Alice about the dead man. Oren ends up confessing to being the one who actually stabbed the individual who we believe to be the abusive Davis. This is just the first few layers of information that Goodman unveils to readers, and I advise you not to take any of this at face value as the situation is sure to change in a quick succession of plot twists.To spice things up, Goodman peppers the narrative with a nice dose of the supernatural. There are literal references to Stephen King's THE SHINING, both the novel and the original film version directed by the late great Stanley Kubrick. Within Mattie's house, there are also surprises and creepy occurrences. To begin with, why is the cleanest place there the seemingly pristine young boy's bedroom? And why does Oren begin to have eerie connections to this other boy, who we learn is Mattie’s deceased younger brother, Caleb? These initial parallels come by way of action figures of various characters from the original Star Wars films. I won't give anything away but will say that there is more than a passing nod to the events in those movies that correspond with the action here.It turns out that Mattie's parents and Caleb all died in that same house. If you think that is the most shocking revelation the book has in store for Goodman's faithful readers, you would be sadly mistaken. The inevitable confrontation with the hunter and the hunted will eventually play out but perhaps not quite the way you might think. THE NIGHT VISITORS is a brilliant work of psychological fiction that is meant to be devoured in one sitting --- preferably on a dark, stormy night where anything can and will happen.Reviewed by Ray Palen

You can find this review and all my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Harper Collins, via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Wow, I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did, it was absolutely brilliant. Alice and Oren are on the run from an abusive husband and father when they end up with Mattie, a case worker, who has faced hardship in her life similar to that of Alice and Oren. Taking them in during a blizzard, which causes them to be snowed in together, while fleeing from an unknown assailant, the past is brought up and the three innocent people end up embroiled in a race for the truth in a decades long cover up. The story is told from alternating points of view as Alice and Mattie. Alice is trying to get Oren away from his abusive rather and is under the assumption that Davis, the boys father, is dead, but is he? Once they are snowed in they start to learn a lot about each other and truths come to light that have been a big factor in shaping Mattie's life thus far. This story deals heavily with domestic and child abuse but also makes a point of showing that there is always someone out there willing to go above an beyond to help someone in need. We see this in Mattie's character. Alice is a hard and untrusting character, and the reader can understand why with all that she's been through, even from an early age. The way she was written perfectly illustrated the fear, guilt, and shame that people who have been through this situations tend to exhibit. But it also shows and understanding point of view and shows that just because someone is lashing out due to bad things that have happened to them, you should still give them a chance and not just abandon them, even if you don't entirely trust them. Oren is the innocence in this story for sure. He is still afraid and unsure, but he still loves to smile, laugh and have fun playing games, especially if they include his favourite franchise, star wars. It gives him hope, and I feel that this bolsters the hope in the other characters. I mean, who wants to sit there and tell a smiling child who's been through a traumatic experience, that it won't get better. If Oren wasn't in the story, I feel that this would have gone in a completely different direction. Davis was a fantastic addition to the cast of characters, embodying that which I personally find absolutely disgusting and not deserving of the chance to continue to do what he gets sick pleasure out of. So to was the addition of the character Jason, who only has a small bit part, but also exhibits a lot of what is wrong with the world today. His blatant pleasure in making a store clerk feel uncomfortable purely because she is not white, is prevalent in today's society and I love that it shows this. It was uncomfortable to read the small exchange but it was definitely necessary. The addition of the small supernatural element was pure genius, and I feel that it really brought something to this story that sets it apart from so many others. It also was a great way for the story plot to progress and was done fantastically. I actually found myself gasping at certain revelations, I did not see some of the big twists that were coming and that gave me butterflies. I love it when a story can surprise me, which lets be honest, these days it can be quite hard to find something that I can't pick the twists out of early on. So this definitely helped boost my rating. I love the themes this dealt with, as said above, a real look into abuse and how hard it can be in today's society for the abusee to get away and stay safe. The revelation of decades old secrets that are now being forced into the life, and knowing that what happened in the past has shaped the characters into what they are today. All in all, this was AMAZING, and I highly recommend it to everyone!!!

I have read Goodman before but not for quite some time. I have enjoyed what I read previously and this was no exception. This novel was entertaining and fast paced. It held my attention from the beginning straight to the end. The Night Visitors was an atmospheric thriller told in alternating perspectives (with a slight supernatural bend) - a woman running from an abusive relationship with "her boy" and the social worker that takes them in during a storm until they can be sent someplace safe. Both women are harboring many secrets from their past that they will need to come to terms with as the novel progresses.All of the main characters were likable and Goodman has a wonderfully easy and flowing writing style. I am glad she has come back into my life and think I will read one of her backlist titles soon.I would like to thank Goodreads for sending an ARC to preview.