Platform Seven

PLATFORM SEVEN is out now from Faber & Faber UK.  Order here.  A four-part adaptation by Paula Milne and Dancing Ledge Productions for ITVX will be broadcast on 7th December.

Platform Seven at 4am: Peterborough Railway Station is deserted. The man crossing the covered walkway on this freezing November morning is confident he’s alone. As he sits on the metal bench at the far end of the platform it is clear his choice is strategic – he’s as far away from the night staff as he can get. What the man doesn’t realise is that he has company. Lisa Evans knows what he has decided. She knows what he is about to do as she tries and fails to stop him walking to the platform edge.

Two deaths on Platform Seven. Two fatalities in eighteen months – surely they’re connected?  

No-one is more desperate to understand what connects them than Lisa Evans herself. After all, she was the first of the two to die . . .

Reviews so far…

‘Highly literary, by turns tragic and redemptive and gloriously strange, it’s a wonderful book: both a warning and a well-crafted, pacy arc of cause and effect.’ Financial Times

‘A quirky and emotional combination of ghost story and psychological thriller… this sensitive story also addresses loneliness and grief – but ultimately delivers a message of hope. A powerful book that will haunt you in the very best way.’ Sunday Mirror

‘One of Doughty’s successes in this novel is examining characters with ostensibly quite ordinary existences and imbuing their lives with complexity and yearning…although Platform Seven covers bleak territory, this is a hopeful novel.’ The Times

‘Doughty is known for her terse, intelligent explorations of the darker corners of the human psyche… [and] paints a claustrophobic and believable portrait of a controlling relationship. I also love her evocation of place and character; each member of staff at the station has a backstory, creating a complex web of human relationships… never less than chillingly precise.’ The Guardian

‘A gripping psychological thriller… a haunting read in more ways than one.’ Daily Express

While the novel inhabits many of the conventions of the crime thriller… Platform Seven is distinguished by its emotional intelligence and sympathy, not just for Lisa, but for the considerable cast of struggling, damaged yet deeply human characters whose lives are touched by the events at the station. The result is a book that is simultaneously a gripping thriller and a reminder of the complex and unpredictable ways in which both violence and kindness ripple out and transform all of us.’ The Australian

‘Doughty’s eerie and atmospheric writing combines a calm assurance with sinister darkness.’ Woman and Home

‘I can highly recommend her new novel Platform Seven, an absorbing study of coercive control.’ Independent (Ireland)

‘Nothing could be more gripping than the story of how Lisa initially tries to explain away Matty’s weirdness to herself and then, as the situation escalates, she makes brave but hopeless attempts to escape the relationship… the book becomes unputdownable and finally very moving.’ Sunday Express

‘A scarily plausible story of emotional abuse and coercive control…it is, finally, desperately moving.’ The Observer

‘A page-turning thriller… for a novel full of death, it’s incredibly uplifting.’ Radio Times

‘Doughty excels at naturalistic, bantering dialogue… yet the grimness is skilfully leavened, with the various plot strands ultimately resolving into a powerfully moving mediation on the nature of love.’ Daily Mail

‘A tale of love and redemption told with careful, incisive writing in a genre that’s totally unexpected. The perfect thriller that’ll grab your attention and keep it there with twists, turns and revelations.’ Stylist magazine

‘From the author of Apple Tree Yard comes a thriller unlike anything I’ve read before… it’s gripping.’ Good Housekeeping

‘Louise Doughty specialises in novels that read like exciting thrillers – partly, I suppose, because they are – but that also delve deep into the mysterious business of human relationships… how beautifully Doughty can time a story, drip-feeding us the information we need with tantalising skill, while somehow making it feel both shocking and utterly inevitable. And just in case that’s not enough, the book also contains one of the great villains of recent fiction.’ Reader’s Digest

‘Here is a wise writer, unafraid to look at the harm people wreak, but one who also believes in the power of kindness.’ Country Life

‘Doughty has a knack for dissecting the dark side of intimate relationships… Doughty nails it; as domestic noir goes, it’s top stuff.’ Evening Standard

‘Utterly mesmerizing, with the pace of a thriller and a sense of profound mystery in the most ordinary of settings. I was hooked from its start to its nerve-wracking, surprising finish.’ Deborah Moggach

‘Really powerful storytelling that got inside me in the best way.’ Gillian Slovo

‘I would read a telephone directory if Louise Doughty wrote it… A beautifully constructed novel about love of all kinds. A joy from the first page to the last.’ Clare Mackintosh

‘What a gripping work this is: a hybrid of ghost story, whodunit and thriller which opens out into a deeply moving meditation on love, loss and humanity.’ Patrick Gale

‘Profoundly moving, with a blistering depiction of an abusive relationship.’ Best

‘Part ghost story, part whodunit and a blistering account of a coercive relationship, Platform Seven is unlike any other thriller I’ve read.’ Red

‘Both profoundly moving and utterly terrifying. I read this in one sitting and know it will stay in my mind for a very long time.’ Emma Flint

‘Doughty has the ability to unsettle her readers at the same time as creating real emotional attachment to her characters…Narration by a ghost is always a risky trick that could come across gimmicky, but Doughty pulls it off with aplomb.’ i paper

‘Doughty’s evocative writing encapsulates both sinister darkness and a sense of calm.’ Woman’s Weekly

‘You’ll read this in one sitting.’ Press Association