The inimitable Sarah Waters handles a dramatic key change with aplomb in her new novel set in 1920s south London
Sarah Waters 'She sweeps all before her.' Photograph: Murdo MacLeod for the Observer
Sarah Waters is renowned for transgression. Whether setting lesbian relationships centre stage (still unusual, though less shocking these days), modernising an established genre (Dickensian potboiler in Fingersmith; country-house ghost story in The Little Stranger; gothic thriller in Affinity), or experimenting structurall she is not is told backwards), she is not afraid to play with her readers' expectations. However, she never loses control of her material, allowing us the thrill of going off piste with her while knowing we will get down in one piece.
The Paying Guests is another wild ride of a novel. Divided into a love story and a crime drama, the two parts are separated by 35 of the grisliest pages I have read in some time. This shift requires some readjustment for the reader, but Waters is so confident – and, line by line, her writing so beautiful, precise and polished – that she sweeps all before her. I succumbed.
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The Paying Guests is another wild ride of a novel. Divided into a love story and a crime drama, the two parts are separated by 35 of the grisliest pages I have read in some time. This shift requires some readjustment for the reader, but Waters is so confident – and, line by line, her writing so beautiful, precise and polished – that she sweeps all before her. I succumbed.More
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