Title:	The Visitors
	Author:	Catherine Burns
	Published:	June 1, 2018, Legends Press
	No. of Pages:	288
	Cover Price:	$26.00 Hardcover, $16.00 Paperback, $4.99 Kindle

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The Visitors, British author Catherine Burns’ debut novel, is dark, chilling, and fascinating. Marion Zetland had an overbearing mother, was incessantly bullied in school by her schoolmates, and is now a 50ish spinster who has no social life and rarely leaves the house. She accepts the fact that she is a bit short on the intelligence scale and relies on her domineering brother, to run things now that their parents are dead. They have no need to work, since their parents left them plenty of money – John, who was considered brilliant was a college professor until being dismissed - but their mansion is deteriorating and things are in a general state of mess. Marion isn’t allowed in the cellar, and doesn’t go down there, even though she hears occasional voices begging for help. When John has a heart attack and is in the hospital, he convinces Marion to take care of his visitors who are in the cellar and she must now face what she has been avoiding for years.

Thriller aficionados who are looking for something different and like dark and riveting novels will welcome this spellbinding book. Burns is an excellent storyteller, and she does a good job of characterizing her characters. The suspense starts early on and doesn’t let up until the very end. Some of the scenarios in this book are bizarre, and they generate enough interest that readers will be kept on the edge of their seats and won’t be able to put the book down.

Although the novel is dark and shocking, there is little or no graphic violence; Burns creates the dark atmosphere skillfully, with inference to what is going on rather than graphic descriptions. The novel cannot be described as light or fun – it is intense, dark, and one that will keep readers’ interest throughout and till the very end.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.