Four novels with immersive settings
A thriller set in the Scottish Highlands? Terrifyingly good.
I’m writing this from rural Norfolk, in a rented cottage so remote that when looking out of the windows, there are just fields as far as the eye can see. Right now, it is pitch black (the kind of darkness that is blowing my tiny London-based mind, indicating that perhaps I’ve lived in a city too long). It is beautiful here, but at the same time feels as though it could be the perfect setting for the start of a crime novel. (Let’s hope not!)
Without wanting to sound like I’m diving into a creative writing seminar, all great novels have a strong sense of place. There is something quite special about those where the setting is a character in itself: you are so immersed in the story that you can hear the cacophony of the Saturday market or smell the salty sea air wafting the pages. The following novels are four of my favourite examples of this - what are yours?
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
For Elle Bishop, the summer house in the back woods of Cape Cod is steeped in history. It is where she met (and fell in love with) her childhood best friend Jonas, where she learned to sail, where she spent long afternoons swimming in the freshwater lake, and where a tragic event changed the course of her and Jonas’s lives.
Now, the house is beginning to deteriorate, and Elle is a married mother in her fifties. During a heated and drink-fuelled gathering, she sleeps with Jonas for the first time while their respective families are in the next room. The atmosphere is hot and sweaty and claustrophobic, perfect for the story which, pre-warning, is darker and more intense than its glimmering pink and blue cover might suggest. The Paper Palace is the kind of novel that really gets under your skin - but I could not tear myself away from this beautifully written and completely unforgettable story.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
A group of thirty-somethings head up to an isolated cabin in the Scottish Highlands for a New Year’s Eve reunion, when a snow blizzard cuts them off from the rest of the world. By January 1st, one of them is dead.
Thus begins a wonderfully Agatha Christie-esque whodunnit that will keep you turning the pages. So many of the characters have a motive that I switched my guess of who the murderer was every ten pages. Twisty and terrifying and very atmospheric, The Hunting Party makes you chilly just reading it.
The White Girl by Tony Birch
Odette Brown lives on the outskirts of a small Australian town, where she quietly raises her granddaughter Sissy. Until now, Odette has managed to evade the local authorities who are taking fair-skinned indigenous children away from their families in order to be “assimilated”, but a new policeman who has arrived in town is determined to enforce the law.
It sounds dystopian, but The White Girl is devastatingly based on real events. This book is one of the saddest, most powerful I’ve ever read, and the dusty heat emanating from the pages only makes it more evocative.
Darling by India Knight
I approached this retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love with a little trepidation, but I loved it as devotedly as I do the classic.
Set in modern day rural Norfolk - yes, I made sure I read it before visiting this weekend - the cousins’ biggest issue is a lack of phone signal (can confirm!). Our protagonist Linda Radlett is lovingly translated for the 21st century, where she makes a series of questionable relationship decisions. I can’t say much more other than Darling is absolutely terrific: a funny, moving and bittersweet portrait of growing up.
And finally…
I adored this piece in Lit Hub about the joy of romance novels, the most underrated genre there is.