On the second morning, she went for a walk alone, ambling along the track and across the field without any sense of direction or purpose. Adrian always had a purpose - to the east, to the west, to the woods, to the fields, to see a view, to reach the end of somewhere. Not having one made her feel peaceful.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: THIS IS NOT A GHOST STORY. It is not a mystery. It is not any kind of horror or fantasy. Like most people (judging by the reviews), I picked up this Kindle Single by Susan Hill assuming it was something like that, given the author, but it is not. It is straight up contemporary fiction about two people figuring their lives out. (Some creepy children help with that, but there is a perfectly real world explanation for them that did not suggest anything more to this reader.)

This is not the type of story I normally go looking for, but having found it, I'm happy to have read it. This is very well written; Hill is a really excellent prose-smith. It is not quite as good as a piece like [b:Ghosts and Empties|25902244|Ghosts and Empties|Lauren Groff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436801725s/25902244.jpg|45786152], which I read earlier this year, but it is in that neighborhood, and that's a very good place for an author to be.

Now if she would just write a ghost story that hits the same level of plotting as this little piece did, we would be in business. ( )

What a disappointment. I find it hard to believe that this short story was penned by the same Susan Hill who wrote novellas such as The Small Hand and The Man in the Picture. This had one dimensional irritating characters and the "mystery" of the children was a complete damp squib. ( )