On a blustery April day, the wife of a doctor discovers that her husband has been having an affair. Moments later, driving along a country road, she fails to see sixty-one-year-old Ruth Mitchell up ahead, riding her bicycle. She hits her, killing her instantly, and drives away. Horrified by what she has done, she turns her attention to Ruth’s bereaved husband, a man as unhinged by grief as she herself is by guilt. And as she insinuates herself into his life, he starts to believe that, for reasons beyond his understanding, his wife has returned to him…
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[Something tells me it’s important not to look dangerous]
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(Duckworth Overlook, 4 February 2010, ebook, borrowed from my library)
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BUY***
This is my first time reading the author.
I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy The Night Following. There are a few things that bothered me about the book. But somehow, I fell in love with it after all.
There is only one thing I didn’t like about the book. Almost every chapter except the last couple starts with a few pages that are an extract from a book Ruth was writing. This serves no real purpose. These pages could have been cut and the book would have lost nothing.
I loved the letters Arthur writes to his dead wife. I found them heart-breaking. I can totally imagine someone doing this as a result of grief. The letters really tug at your heart-strings, especially when the doctor’s wife starts hanging around and Arthur think she’s Ruth’s ghost and starts to refer to these visitations in the letter.
I really didn’t like the doctor’s wife. What happened to Ruth was terrible accident. I can’t quite believe that she just drove off. She deserved to feel the horror and torment she did. Quite frankly, she deserves all the pain in the world.
The ending of The Night Following broke my heart. It’s so sad but contains some hope as well. Maybe Arthur will start to move on?
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