Perhaps Celia Fremlin’s most personal book. Imogen is just beginning to come to terms with the death of her professor husband, when his whole family descends on her for Christmas: two adult stepkids and their significant others, two step-grandsons, and her husband’s second ex-wife. They’re there to stay, apparently, even as one strange thing after another begins to occur; ghostly faces in the night, her husband’s office ransacked, and a mysterious stranger who insists that Imogen herself caused the accident that killed her husband. As usual with Fremlin, the odd occurrences begin to pile up, even as Imogen tries to focus on managing widowhood and planning for her next chapter. Fremlin’s skillful depiction of domestic life gone wrong is always subtle and compelling.