This was the last book I read in 2011 and it was a corker. I haven't tried Jane Harris before though I believe her first novel, THE OBSERVATIONS, was highly praised. The received wisdom in publishing is that the second novel someone writes is a often a problem and not as good as the first. If your debut is a success, critics are ready to pounce on your next effort. If you've used up all your material, or the best of it, then your second novel, so the legend goes, may turn out to be a poor, weak thing.

Nothing of the kind happened to Jane Harris. I will read her first novel now, of course, but I can't imagine it will top GILLESPIE AND I, which was one of my favourite books of the year: a pleasure from beginning to end.

This is the story of a spinster of some means, Harriet Baxter, who manages to entangle herself in the lives of Ned Gillespie, a promising Scottish artist of the 1880s, and his family. He is on the verge of becoming well-known. The First International Exhibition is on in Glasgow and the place is teeming with visitors, tourists, and residents, all enjoying the spectacle. At first everything goes well. Harriet helps the family in various ways and they seem to like her and accept her as a good friend. Then things begin to unravel.. Sybil, the older daughter, starts behaving very strangely. Kenneth, the brother, has to leave town for reasons the reader learns but the family does not. Or maybe does not... At a certain point, the younger daughter disappears. Harriet is the narrator of the novel and it is through her eyes we see every part of the action.

It would be a shame to reveal more because although this is not a thriller, it is a mystery and we don't know, till the very end, precisely what has happened and how. The Victorian action is framed by a narrative set in 1933. Harriet is now in her eighties and is writing down the events of long ago. What we see of her life as an old woman casts doubts over her account of the past and even the present isn't quite what it appears to be. This is a rich, fascinating, involving and fast-moving story, which races to its conclusion with the inexorable power of one of those old Victorian steam trains. There is also plenty to discuss with others and turn over in your mind when you reach the last page. Terrific stuff.