Ruth’s story starts with Sunday lunch at the in-laws and builds slowly, pulling you in relentlessly until you can’t put the book down. It is deceptive in its simplicity, at various points in the story I found myself thinking ‘but they couldn’t do that’ or ‘that would never happen.’ But it does and you believe it. The denouement is startling. This is very different from Gregory’s historical novels but shares the same aspects of a pageturner: you simply want to know what happens next.
‘The Little House’ by Philippa Gregory