The schoolhouse

The Schoolhouse was a 1970s experimental school. Isobel was a student there and established some unusual friendships, but she also acquired dangerous frenemies. The adolescent physical and psychic trauma she suffered resulted in deafness and a host of phobias, but she gets by working at a London library, living an otherwise isolated life. Her safe world is threatened, however, when she receives a letter from a former teacher and becomes involved in the police investigation of a local girl's disappearance. Half of the story is told through the young Isobel's diary entries and her adult internalizations, riddled with confusion and guilt. The other half, intertwined, is a police procedural. It's an interesting combination, sometimes confusing but somehow made compelling by the distinctly drawn female characters. The author has a unique crime-fiction qualification, being an actor who made her film debut in Young Sherlock Holmes. Her impressive (non-mystery) fiction debut, Love and Other Thought Experiments, was longlisted for the Booker in 2020.

London librarian Isobel Williams, the heroine of this superlative psychological thriller from Ward (Love and Other Thought Experiments), is haunted by her years at the Schoolhouse, an unconventional school with a dangerous mix of lofty goals, lax supervision, and volatile students. Though she left the Schoolhouse in 1975, Isobel remains fearful of close attachments and is reliant on carefully ordered routines to keep her memories of it at bay. In 1990, she receives an unexpected letter from one of her Schoolhouse teachers, who asks to see her and mentions a former classmate Isobel has tried to forget. The same day the letter arrives, she notices two school-age girls in the university research library where she works. Children are unusual there, but Isobel isn't concerned until she sees a newspaper photograph of missing 10-year-old Caitlin Thompson. Det. Sgt. Sally Carter, who's investigating the disappearance, questions Isobel's story: Caitlin vanished the night before Isobel claims to have seen her, and no other schoolgirl was involved. As Carter doggedly works the case, Isobel's past gives rise to new peril. Passages from Isobel's childhood diary punctuate the women's adult perspectives, perfectly balancing nuanced emotion and riveting suspense. This is not to be missed. Agent: Laura Macdougall, United Agents. (Feb.)

The Schoolhouse was a 1970s experimental school. Isobel was a student there and established some unusual friendships, but she also acquired dangerous frenemies. The adolescent physical and psychic trauma she suffered resulted in deafness and a host of phobias, but she gets by working at a London library, living an otherwise isolated life. Her safe world is threatened, however, when she receives a letter from a former teacher and becomes involved in the police investigation of a local girl's disappearance. Half of the story is told through the young Isobel's diary entries and her adult internalizations, riddled with confusion and guilt. The other half, intertwined, is a police procedural. It's an interesting combination, sometimes confusing but somehow made compelling by the distinctly drawn female characters. The author has a unique crime-fiction qualification, being an actor who made her film debut in Young Sherlock Holmes. Her impressive (non-mystery) fiction debut, Love and Other Thought Experiments, was longlisted for the Booker in 2020. Copyright 2023 Booklist Reviews.

London librarian Isobel Williams, the heroine of this superlative psychological thriller from Ward (Love and Other Thought Experiments), is haunted by her years at the Schoolhouse, an unconventional school with a dangerous mix of lofty goals, lax supervision, and volatile students. Though she left the Schoolhouse in 1975, Isobel remains fearful of close attachments and is reliant on carefully ordered routines to keep her memories of it at bay. In 1990, she receives an unexpected letter from one of her Schoolhouse teachers, who asks to see her and mentions a former classmate Isobel has tried to forget. The same day the letter arrives, she notices two school-age girls in the university research library where she works. Children are unusual there, but Isobel isn't concerned until she sees a newspaper photograph of missing 10-year-old Caitlin Thompson. Det. Sgt. Sally Carter, who's investigating the disappearance, questions Isobel's story: Caitlin vanished the night before Isobel claims to have seen her, and no other schoolgirl was involved. As Carter doggedly works the case, Isobel's past gives rise to new peril. Passages from Isobel's childhood diary punctuate the women's adult perspectives, perfectly balancing nuanced emotion and riveting suspense. This is not to be missed. Agent: Laura Macdougall, United Agents. (Feb.)