Wow, I was not expecting this book to be what it was or this good! It’s writing was so great that the story was weaved like a delicate twisted web, and we got to watch it get unraveled! Intense, chilling, scary at times, dark, and twisty are what I would use to describe this book! Such a complicated and haunting tale, with elements that really gave me goosebumps! Highly, highly recommend!
Will make sure to buzz it up on all the different platforms!

Great cover and very intriguing premise. I can't put my finger exactly on why after persevering with this until over half way I didn't manage to finish it. I thought it was very well written and enjoyed the unreliable narrator viewpoint, perhaps it was just because there didn't seem to be a single likeable character that meant I failed to connect with it? Or maybe it was just a bit too slow? Or maybe I just wasn't in the right mood. Not sure.

As an ex Oxford-dweller and longtime employee of the University, having read the synopsis of Magpie Lane, I was so excited to read it- and it didn't disappoint! Portraying a darker side of the University city, its streets, buildings, institutions and traditions I found it to be a compelling, dark and downright creepy mystery, which kept me guessing right until the end.


When 8 year old selective mute Felicity goes missing from the Master's lodgings her father, Nick, and stepmother are beside themselves with worry. The police turn to Dee, Felicity's nanny, and extracts of her interview with the police are interspersed with her reminiscences about events leading up to Alicia's disappearance. It becomes clear very early on that she's omitting details in her discussions with the police, although we're not quite sure what she has to hide or who she might be protecting.
The apparent unreliability of her narration and the fact that Dee herself is a very enigmatic character adds an extra satisfying layer of intrigue to the plot.


Nick and his pregnant wife Mariah are largely occupied with renovating their new accommodation, hosting dinner parties to schmooze VIPs and canoodling with each other, so Felicity seems to be largely an inconvenience to them. After her mother's death Felicity will only speak to her father, to the annoyance and frustration of her stepmother.
While I didn't particularly warm to any of the central characters, the bumbling and colourful house historian, Linklater, stole my heart. Though they seem quite different he strikes up a friendship with Dee and his straightforwardness seems to appeal to Felicity and she behaves in a much more carefree way around him.


As well as being an intriguing mystery, some of the themes of the book really got me thinking. Nick's ambition and relentless pursuit of money, power and status in the academic world to the detriment of his troubled daughter. The exploration of possible pitfalls of blended families, with Felicity's parents seeming to be utterly focussed on their new baby.
And for me much closer to home were the difficulties associated with the unsaid expectation of a lack of work-life balance in certain careers, in this case when working in academia, and particularly at Oxford.


This is the first of Lucy Atkins' novels that I have read and it certainly won't be the last as her writing style is wonderful. Highly recommended.

As soon as I finished Magpie Lane, I immediately bought all of Lucy Atkins' back catalogue and began working my way through them. So clever, so engaging and compelling, I loved it.

Scottish Nanny Dee came to Oxford as a young girl and never left, she thought about it a number of times but it never happened. The academics who came and went produced a steady stream of child care opportunities that had so far managed to keep her employed.
She's away overnight when her latest charge, eight year old Felicity vanishes without trace from her family home, the Masters Lodgings in Magpie Lane. The police are called and start asking questions and Dee is one of the people they're asking.
Told in a skilfully woven mix of Dee's interviews by the police intertwined with her recollections this book grabbed my attention straight away, its got an interesting cast of characters and the house is old with secrets of its own, a perfect setting.
It was well paced and kept my attention making it difficult to put down. I really liked it and an interesting twist at the end that had me questioning myself.
Definitely recommended
My thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

So welcome to Dee, the most grouchy, unreliable-but-strangely-appealing narrator you could wish for, strongly in the vein of Zoe Heller's character Barbara in Notes on a Scandal. We meet an intriguing cast of characters through Dee's beady Scots Nanny's eyes, as she attempts to explain to two detectives the disappearance of her charge, Felicity, from the spooky old college attic where the little girl lives with her remote, show-off clever father, the Master of the college, and her distracted Danish stepmother. Joining the three of them a few months before Felicity's disappearance, following a chance meeting on the mathematical bridge one July morning – the all-seeing, compassionate-but-critical Nanny Dee.

This is a great yarn, with a touch of the supernatural, a nod to the world of fantasy, a quirky love angle involving a dishevelled permenant student called Linklater, and a great deal of fascinating lore about Oxford smuggled in. I particularly enjoyed the slightly tetchy love-hate relationship Dee and Linklater, each of them misfits in Oxford society, have with the city and the University. Their joyful tours around graveyards and hidden places are the high points of the narrative, and underpin and make more poignant the satisfying twist in the tale.

A great read, something to curl up with and devour on a quiet weekend...

Thanks again to Netgalley and Quercus Books.

Tense story about a nanny looking after a selectively mute child in Oxford academia. A tense character-filled novel with a growing sense of unease and a haunted house. Brilliant - a must read.

This book is absolutely incredible. I have read so many thrillers recently that do not warrant the term but thrilling does not even begin to describe "Magpie Lane."
I must admit to having spent several rather fraught years as an undergraduate at Oxford University (I hasten to add that I do not have a matriculation photo in my bathroom) and this novel perfectly captured the claustrophobic, slightly feverish atmosphere of the place. Ms Atkins truly takes you into this strange world of town and gown, where traditions can be smothering.
The story of the mathematically gifted nanny who is employed by a new Master of an Oxford college and his second wife to care for his selectively mute daughter is engaging and I defy anybody not to feel protective over poor little Felicity. The characters were all well drawn and believable and I genuinely cared about their fates (not something I can admit to in the case of several other thrillers).
It's fast-paced and the twists come out of nowhere, I genuinely could not have seen them coming. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it's one of those few works that you simply devour because you need to know what happens next. Honestly one of the best things I've read in months.

Wow, what a read! Lucy Atkins manages to deliver books that are expertly written but also combine stories that are intriguing and original.
This book is fabulously dark, atmospheric and clever. I raced through each page as I was desperate to find out what would happen. It’s a true page turner that will be one of my most memorable reads this year.

You know that feeling when you are desperate to find out how a story ends but equally desperate not to finish it because it’s soooo good? That’s how Magpie Lane is for me. Take one angry, controlling Oxford College Master, his eight year old selectively mute daughter, a pregnant Danish stepmother whose a fraught wallpaper restorer (yes, it’s a thing), a mathematically obsessed Nanny with a past, a fabulously eccentric House Detective whose been doing his doctorate for 27 years, a cat called Fibonacci, add in some ghostly haunting and Oxford University traditions and oddities and what have you got apart from a huge sentence?? An absolutely gripping story that enthrals from start to finish. I love it!! The story is told from the perspective of Dee, the nanny.

This novel is so well written, the story flows effortlessly and there are some fantastic and original descriptions that make Oxford come alive. It makes you feel a range of emotions such as anger at Nick and Mariah the parents who are just awful and blame their parental inadequacy and neglect of Felicity on Dee. There’s sadness for Felicity because she is grieving for her mother and there delight at Linklater,the House Detective, whose knowledge of Oxford is utterly fascinating and he helps bring Felicity out of her shell. There are some lovely touches of humour too and the growing bond between Felicity, Dee and Linklater is heartwarming.

The characterisation is superb - you can picture them all so easily. The stand out character is Dee. I love her kindness, patience and care she shows Felicity and how she really understands her. Her love of maths and how she makes it seem like magic is fascinating; there are a lot of maths references which makes this book a little bit different.

There are plenty of creepy and ghostly moments too as the Masters House has a long and unsettling history and this plays a pivotal role in the unfolding events in this unhappy home. I like how Lucy Atkins uses wallpaper references to illuminate a point especially through the William Morris patterns to demonstrate the artifice of Nick and Mariah’s life.

Overall, this is such a good book which I will remember. The end is really intriguing as it’s ambiguous which I like although it of course meant that the pleasure of reading this book was over! Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the ARC.

A domestic thriller that will grip you from the very beginning.

Eight year old Felicity Law has gone missing from her home in Oxford; her father is an influential academic, her beautiful Danish stepmother is frantic with worry. The police turn to Felicity's nanny, Dee, for answers. Through Dee's police interviews and reminisces we begin to slowly unravel what has been happening in the house on Magpie Lane over the last seven months.

I very much enjoyed this novel, the plot is substantial and had me eager to turn the page. The reader begins knowing that Felicity is missing; it is revealed early on that she could have let herself out of the house sleepwalking, runaway or been abducted - there is no sign of a break in or struggle at the house. Dee is in a police interview room with detectives Faraday and Khan. Some of the narrative is her response to questions posed by the police and some is Dee's remembrances of the past few months caring for Felicity and of her own past. It is clear that there are parts of her life that Dee wishes to keep secret, information is given slowly by her, when she feels it appropriate to do so.

The book is mainly focused on the four occupants of the house, Nick and Mariah Law, Felicity and Dee. We learn that Felicity is a deeply troubled young girl, awkward, anxious and selectively mute. The relationship with her stepmother is strained, as Felicity has not spoken to Mariah in the four and a half years that she has been her stepmother. Mariah is pregnant, and the approaching new baby adds a further strain. Nick is ostensibly a loving father, but he is career driven; his focus seems to be his success at Oxford, followed by his new wife and lastly his daughter. Dee and Nick do not get off to a good start and their relationship deteriorates throughout the novel, as each believes they are doing what is best for Felicity.
Lucy Atkins describes the Oxford, the University and its nuances very well, allowing the uninitiated reader to understand what a closed and insular place it is. We are even treated to brief snippets of fact as Dee becomes friends with Linklater, a house historian; together Dee, Linklater and Felicity go on tours of the cemeteries of Oxford and we learn a little of some of its most famous residents.

*** possible spoilers ***

We are introduced to the 400 year old Masters Lodging where the law family are living, the house has all the eerie creaks and groans that can be expected in any old house; but we are unsure if there is perhaps something more. The introverted Felicity is finally able to communicate to Dee that she sees people in her attic bedroom and especially in the priest hole located there. The heightened tensions in the house and between the characters could be the reason for this atmosphere. Mariah feels guilt over her relationship with Nick, and there is an allusion to her feeling guilt over the death of Ana, Felicity's mother, Nick's first wife. Dee is frustrated by Nick and Mariah and herself becomes increasingly isolated. The reader is left to wonder what is real and what is paranoia.

*** ***

I was drawn into the characters quickly, and able to empathise with the female characters. Nick as a character is aloof, but this is a reflection of the kind of man that he is. I liked the way Mariah spoke, the repetitions and use of "hey" in sentences instantly evoked conversations I have had with Danish friends. Initially Dee is a very likeable character, but as the story went on i began to find her an unreliable narrator; we only view Felicity's relationship with her parents through her eyes. There are several instances in the police interviews where either Dee or the parents accuse the other of lying.

The ending is satisfying; not predictable, but the reader is given strong hints as the novel progresses, so there is no big shock reveal. It does leave one with some moral questions to ask on how you would have behaved.

I felt in parts that the book reminded me a little of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw or the more recent Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key; exploring the close bonds that can form between a nanny and a child.

This is the first book I have read by Lucy Atkins and I will certainly seek her work out in future. I would highly recommend this book to lovers of domestic thriller and mystery.

With a lot of experience under her belt, Dee thought she had seen it all. When Oxford college master Nick and his designer wife Mariah hire her to be the nanny for their eight year old girl Felicity, she agrees to the temporary assignment.
Felicity is selectively mute, bereaved by the loss of her birthmother and being bullied at school.
Then one day she disappears.
The story alternates between police station and the family home, the tension is palpable. Both are confined spaces that keep the reader struggling for air.
Meanwhile there's Linklater researching the history of the house and many terrible events float to the surface.

Magpie Lane is a captivating fast paced psychological thriller. Nick and Mariah are incredibly lousy parents, who prefer their careers over their daughter. The neglect is disturbing. Dee's effort to give the girl the love she deserves seems to pay off, until the disappearance that is, and no one is any wiser what really happened right up to the epiloque.
A strange and quick ending that nevertheless gives the reader quite a bit of food for thought.

Thank you Netgalley and Quercus Books for the ARC.

Brilliant. Compelling. Marvellous.
A story of fine detail, excellently drawn characters and great skill, Magpie Lane is not a book to miss. Rather it is one to savour. Having said that I raced through it, unable to put it down. Gorgeous detail of Oxford, and the scholarly life where there is no room for a troubled child. I wish I could give it more than 5stars. #Magpielane #Netgalley @lucyatkins

Finally! A book that more than lives up to all the hype. I loved every word and every page. The characterisations and settings are breathtakingly good, with shivery touches of creepiness, perfectly balanced by moments of tenderness, laughter and love.

The storyline itself is enthralling. A child has gone missing from the Master's Lodge of an Oxford College and the narrative cuts between police interviews with the Nanny during the early few hours of the crisis, and the unfolding events which led up to this point over the previous few months. It's a device which Ms Atkins deploys to tremendous effect as she builds an increasingly fraught and tense story.

It's difficult to say much more without risking spoilers - and I so want you to come to this novel with no preconceptions or inklings of what might be afoot. Just know you have a real treat in store here.

I loved the language and the richness of the tapestry woven from it. Everything is peppered with fascinating little snippets and asides. So, if you think you know Oxford, think again. I am quietly confident you will pick a few things you hadn't noticed about the place.

There is a lot of knowing humour here too. Several times I wished were reading on paper instead of on kindle so that I could make notes as I went, and then along came this perfect riff on reading and marginalia.

For my tastes, this ending came at the ideal moment. I love a bit of moral ambiguity on the page, and I can well imagine book groups having many a joyful and exuberant field date over MAGPIE LANE and - like me - launching prayer vigils for a sequel.

I cannot wait to reread this on paper. What's more, my ears are itching to hear the Audible of this. I am sure it will also be made into a TV series or film as well. But the language and voices are so perfect that surely an audio version would do it more justice.

With many thanks to Quercus and Netgalley for sending me a review copy, I am now off to google everything else Lucy Atkins has ever done.

This was a new author for me, I'd heard good things about her previous books so I went in with high expectations and the book didn't disappoint. It is so much more that the domestic thriller I thought it would be , i couldn't even place a genre on it as it is part thriller, part crime, family drama and supernatural all in one! It is very well written , I was drawn in to the whole atmosphere of the book and I loved the Oxford setting, very creepy. The story is told through police interviews and also Dee's recollection of events which I liked and I had no idea where the story would go. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Thank you netgalley and quercus books for this advanced copy.

Such an intelligently wonderfully atmospheric read. You can really see and feel each nook and cranny of Oxford, which gives it wonderful credibility. Especially loved the way the storyline flipped backwards and forwards between the police interview and Dee's thoughts surrounding the events leading up to the disappearance of her charge and the really clever, thought provoking ending.

A story which cleverly blends horror elements, the supernatural and domestic noir. The everyday seems to march alongside the bizarre, without it ever feeling like too much of a leap. The plight of the mute little girl was quite touching, while the narrator does an excellent job of appearing to be very reliable... but then subverting our expectations. I also enjoyed the satirical swipes at the smug, often pretentious culture of the Oxford colleges.

I have enjoyed Lucy Atkins other novels and it seems they get better and better. I love the character of Dee and became drawn in by her straight away. There is a sense that she doesn’t really belong anywhere but she is curiously at ease with who she is. Some thing of an outsider in Oxford, she doesn’t belong to any of the colleges but is one of those invisible people who provides services to those who do belong. Dee is a nanny and makes a very disturbing observation about the academics who use her services - when desperate for childcare, people will let a near stranger look after their child. The new master and his wife, Nick and Mariah, hire her after a chance meeting on a bridge early one morning abs a hasty conversation. They do not ask fir references or do a police check. If they had, they would have found that Dee has a criminal record.

It is no coincidence that Mariah restores old wallpaper. She is adept at papering over cracks. She tells Dee that Felicity is selectively mute, that she met Nick after his wife died from a longstanding illness and that they both did everything to get her talking again. There us a stifling atmosphere in the lodgings and the author carefully links the house with the people in it - a deep sense of a long history being erased and retold through renovation or retelling. Is the start of this couple’s relationship as simple as they portray? Mariah’s chirpy and wholesome exterior might, just like the new decor, might hint at a darker, more murky interior world. The house’s history is slowly being unearthed by Linklater, a social historian hired by Nick. It shows how out of step these two characters might really be. Nick wants to disturb and discover the chequered past of their new home, while Mariah is whitewashing it. Linklater discovers family dramas, haunted occupants and a possible answer for the ‘priest’s hole’ in Felicity bedroom that may be even more malign than the poisonous Victorian wallpaper.

Felicity isn’t just mute. She is a very distressed child, seemingly obedient but full of simmering anger and confusion. She roams the house while still asleep, makes patterns on the floor with her collection of bones and artefacts, and seems to be drawn by the ‘priest’s hole’ in the middle of the night. She slowly starts to speak to Dee, but also makes a surprising connection to Linklater when the three of them start to take tea together after school. They are a group of misfits, finding each other and developing trust. There seems to be a distinction made between those who appear genuinely themselves, however odd they may seem, and those who are putting on an act; a natural family forming where there is a forced family unit at home. It has to be significant that the one person Felicity never speaks to at all is Mariah.

Dee becomes more than a passing childcare worker, she is deeply involved with this little girl. I like the way the author foreshadows this relationship as Dee sees Felicity for the first time and notices her curls, just like those of another child she once knew. Is this another nanny’s role or is she giving hints of a past we don’t know about? If Dee once had a family what happened to them? This is where we come to discussing Dee’s role as narrator and whether she is not as candid with us as she seems. I kept waiting for a terrible secret to emerge and for Dee’s reaction to being exposed. The tension is ratcheted up when we learn that Felicity has gone missing and the narrative passes back and forth between the present day and what has happened in these character’s pasts.

I enjoyed the ending, although I raced there a little too quickly. I was desperately hoping for a happy ending for both Felicity and Dee. Watching Mariah and Nick’s ‘perfect’ life completely implode was oddly satisfying. With her perfect exterior ravaged by the birth of her first child she struggles to function normally and seems haunted by Felicity’s mother Ana. She starts to spend days in pyjamas, coping with a colicky baby and this break in her usually ordered world threatens to break her. I was left feeling that Nick and Mariah didn’t deserve Felicity, but was that what the narrator wanted me to feel. I was left wondering whether I’d been manipulated all along. As the police wondered and questioned, the reader does the same. Is Felicity as disturbed as Dee would have us believe? Or was Nick right in his assessment that it was Dee’s presence, her inability to sleep, her encouragement in discovering something supernatural and the constant buckets left in the kitchen to bleach animal skulls?

Finally, I liked the way maths was used as a theme in their interactions; Dee’s proof is an example of how something seemingly factual and definite can still be manipulated. A maths problem can have two correct answers. It simply has to be worked out differently. Which version do we trust? This is an intelligent, psychological, thriller that keeps you guessing long after reading, Lucy Atkins has done it again! A great read.

Wow what a read. Defies the usual genre boxes we love to put everything in. A little bit crime, a little bit thriller, a little bit family drama, a little bit mystery and a fascinating brilliantly characterised unreliable narrator in Dee.
Intelligently written and brilliantly plotted Magpie tells of a disfunctional family with a young selectively mute, traumatised daughter who employ Scottish Nanny Dee to take care of her. Felicity, a fragile young girl, haunted by the death of her mother, warms to Dee whilst becoming further isolated from stepmother and father.
But this book starts with Felicity going missing? Kidnapped? Wondered off alone in the middle of the night? Or has she come to serious harm at the hands of her family.... or her Nanny? Told through a series of police interviews and Dees recollection the story unfolds.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. I wish I still had it to read as finishing a book I’ve loved means you have to say goodbye to the characters. Such an interesting premise. A creepy house, an almost-silent child, deep-hidden secrets and the story told in a series of flashbacks. I love the fact that it’s set in Oxford, England and contains so many interesting facts about the city and it’s history. I found myself pausing my reading to go and look something up.
I didn’t see the ending coming at all. I did not guess it at all.
It’s creepy, it’s spooky, it’s a thriller, it’s a love story. It’s got everything.
This is the first book I’ve read by Lucy Atkins. It won’t be the last. I’ve just downloaded her back catalogue of books onto my kindle.