The Girl on the Landing cover art

The Girl on the Landing

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The Girl on the Landing

By: Paul Torday
Narrated by: David Monteath, Clare Wille
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

From the best-selling author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, a ghost story, a psychological thriller and a tale of love rediscovered.

Elizabeth has been married to Michael for ten years. She has adjusted to a fairly monotonous routine with her wealthy, decent but boring husband. Part of this routine involves occasional visits to Beinn Caorrun, the dank and gloomy house in a Scottish glen that Michael inherited. There are memories there that Michael will not share with her.

But then Michael begins to change. It starts when he thinks he sees, in a picture, the figure of a girl on a landing. As he changes, life becomes so much more fun and Elizabeth sees glimpses of a man she can fall in love with at last. But who - or what - is changing Michael....

©2009 Paul Torday (P)2013 Orion Publishing Group Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Fiction Scary Feel-Good

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Light Shining in the Forest cover art
The Legacy of Hartlepool Hall cover art
The Hopeless Life of Charlie Summers cover art
More Than You Can Say cover art
The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce cover art
Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story cover art
The Four Last Things cover art
Brought to Book cover art
The Memory Game cover art
Paradise Postponed cover art
Love Song cover art
Shake Hands For Ever cover art
The Wildflower Path cover art
The Brimstone Wedding cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
The story has very little to do with a girl on a landing and is not a ghost story. It doesn't seem sure what it is. I didn't like the characters, but in all honesty that may be because i found them difficult to relate to. This is most evident in the epilogue, I won't give anything away but it is almost comical. Would be bizarre if it wasn't so boring.

Unrelatable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully narrated by David Monteath and Clare Willie this story ensures that you very quickly care what happens to the two main characters. While early clues are available as to their pasts and potential futures you will be hooked to the very end. Paul Torday also wrote Salmon Fishing in the Yemen which I also thoroughly enjoyed. I will now seek out anything else he has written.

Subtle story that hooks from beginning to end

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Any additional comments?

Fully expected not to enjoy this book. It is peppered with man-splaining pompous gentlemen's club members and the social circles, wealth and mores described are completely out of my range of experience. Yet the skill of the author is such that all that stuff is unimportant and you find yourself connecting with the human element of the characters. It was mesmerising listening to Michael and Elizabeth's story unfold, with the constant menace of the paranormal (and/or insanity). I found myself identifying with many of their struggles and caring deeply about the outcome of increasingly menacing influences in their lives. What was particularly powerful for me was the complete absence of heavy handed tricks usually present in stories like this. The constant low-key sense of threat and turbulence beneath polite socially acceptable behaviour had a far bigger impact and I found myself quite tense and nervy as I listened to the story develop.

Menacing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was so good. A description of schizophrenia and its destruction of a personality plus a thriller which led to my listening in 2 days despite having to go to work. Strongly recommended

Gripping

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Ate this book up in a very short time. It's a thriller, a mystery and at the same time extremely well written with characters you can get into. And the narrators were perfect. I want more!

Gripping

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this audio book and found it hard to pause. The narrators were perfect. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a story with what I would consider a supernatural theme

Couldn't put it down!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent story and narration, I listened to the whole thing in 2 days and couldn't stop! Would certainly recommend it!

Gripping!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A bit longwinded, all around one subject but gripping enough for me to finish listening to the book. That is

It's ok

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A great listen. compelling story that's like Jekyll and Hyde afresh, with more sympathy and thrills for the modern reader.

Fantastic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story centres on a couple who are in a dull but servicable marriage. Michael spends his time in his gentleman's club mixing with a bunch of buffoons and with few interests apart from shooting and fishing. These are not shared by Elizabeth, his brittle wife who is in a stressful job and resentful of having to socialise with Michael's friends. They have put up with eachother for ten years but appear to be on the brink of separation. Then things mysteriously change when they take a trip to Ireland and Michael sees a ghostly figure in a painting. Elizabeth begins to see her husband in a completely new light and realises he is completely different from the man she thought he was.

This is a truly original spooky tale weaving in themes of racism, mental illness, national identity and love within a marriage in ways I did not expect. I loved the characters and really cared about what happened to them. The story is unpredictable and densely atmospheric and it is brilliantly read by the narrators.

If you are looking for a fresh take on the ghost story genre, then I thoroughly recommend this book to you.

Gripped from start to finish

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews