A strange book, sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying.

She’s written three novels and each are totally unique. This one is a strange tale about a group of visitors to a large Downton style mansion. It is a ghost story but a subtle one and quite droll and funny. I did guess the denouement but it was still a lively and original tale.Best reads of 2012: Philip Tew, Selection and Access Librarian, shares his top novels of 2012. Somewhere in the English countryside, isolated manor house Sterne nears ruin - most of the servants have left, and patriarch Edward Swift is in Manchester trying to find a solution to the family's financial problems. Meanwhile, his wife, Charlotte, and stepchildren Emerald, Clovis, and Imogene "Smudge" Torrington remain at home to celebrate Emerald's birthday. But the celebrations are interrupted by refugees from a nearby train accident. Not quite the social class with which the Torrington-Swifts socialize, the third-class passengers are relegated to the library. But a sense of menace lingers, for everyone in this novel seems to be hiding a secret ... many of which are revealed during an unusual parlour game orchestrated by a malevolent interloper. Set ambiguously sometime in the early 20th century, this novel in which class divides are a distinct theme veers from a comedy of manners to something else entirely. Fiction A to Z newsletter February 2013.

"The Uninvited Guests" opens at the beginning of the 1900s on the day of Emerald Torrington’s 20th birthday party. Emerald’s stepfather, Edward Swift, has departed for Manchester to try and borrow money to keep the family in their dilapidated country manor, Sterne. As the rest of the household prepares for birthday guests, a railway accident on a nearby branch line suddenly leaves the family responsible for a group of dazed third-class passengers. One sinister yet oddly appealing traveller, Charlie Traversham-Beechers, begins charming Emerald’s brother while Emerald’s mother recognizes the guest with horror. As a storm rages outside, Traversham-Beechers takes control of the evening and finally reveals his purpose for being there in a splendidly awful climax. The tension then lessens but Sadie Jones continues to keep our interest. How will the characters repair the damage they have inflicted on one another? Will initial intimations of love and attraction be irretrievably destroyed by the night’s unexpected brutalities? This novel takes an uncomfortably close look at how decent people can abandon their best selves in a crowd. Jones firmly tethers her characters to the period and displays a deep understanding of her craft. Structurally strong, polished and composed with clean, clear prose, Jones has written a charming and elegant novel.

After the mid-novel turn of events the book loses the often amusing caustic satire and arch tone that were its two main pleasures and became a bit of a drag.

I enjoyed what this book stimulated in my imagination. I felt involved with the rather unlikable characters and surreal setting. It reminded me of waking from a dream when you remember strange parts but can't quite put them all together.

Despite a slow start, the book ended up being pretty engrossing. I don't want to ruin this for other interested readers, so I'm trying to be careful how I phrase things. I expected something very particular from the cover description and a review I heard on the radio, and about halfway through the book, it diverged from that expectation quite dramatically. I have mixed feelings about that diversion, but overall, I feel more positively about the book than negatively.

This book was not what I expected. I thought I would love it, but it did not appeal at all.

I wasn't sure what to think of this book as it wasn't quite what I was expecting. However, it really held my interest and I powered through it. I did have an inkling about the plot twist that was coming but that did not diminish anything. The characters were quirky, especially narcissistic Charlotte (the mother). All in all, a good and quick read.

An aging, slightly ramshackle manor house, a self-centred distant mother, a self-centred egotistical brother, a young woman trying to keep everything on an even keel, and then the guests show up. Uninvited, unforeseen and burdensome. A very good read indeed!

What a beautifully written book - it was an absolute delight to read.