The actuality in that bodge of a word shows we're in the real world, for her characters are so well evoked. Whatever happens here happens to real people. The dialogue is sprightly but realistic, and everything about the book conspires to make it a very enjoyable, intriguing short novel. It shows a craft to put the slightly unusual in such familiar, realistic surrounds - not so much so as in her most famous work, [[The Woman in Black by Susan Hill|The Woman in Black]], but with almost as much quality.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy. We also have a review of Hill's [[The Beacon by Susan Hill|The Beacon]].
For more realistically odd rural happenings, I can't recommend [[Blackmoor by Edward Hogan]] enough.