Following the death of her mother, Lily is sent to a remote girls’ boarding school, tearing her away from all the excitement of London in the Swingin’ Sixties. Bereft, she develops a relationship with Rainer, the husband of Sylvia, the headmistress.
One day, Bella, the school Collie, goes missing whilst playing on the shore below sheer cliffs. Despite a rising tide, Lily is determined to find the beautiful dog and discovers her trapped between rocks in
a cave. Deepening water swirls around them as her fingertips dig into the sand and touch the smooth surface of what she believes to be an animal skull. From that moment on, she is haunted by a young
girl pleading for help.
Lily speaks to her headmistress and learns that eleven years previously a pupil went missing. Eva was a refugee from Hungary, and it was assumed by the police that she had run away.
Forced to stay on at school during the Christmas holiday, Lily is caught between those who know what really happened and wish to silence her, and her determination to end Eva’s wait for justice.
But is history about to repeat itself?
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Romola Farr first trod the boards on the West End stage aged sixteen and continued to work for the next eighteen years in theatre, TV and film – and as a photographic model. A trip to Hollywood led to the sale of her first screenplay and a successful change of direction as a screenwriter and playwright.
Bridge To Eternity was her debut novel, and Breaking Through the Shadows and Where the Water Flows are standalone sequels. All are contemporary stories located in the fictional town of Hawksmead. Eva is Waiting is set in a remote girls’ boarding school in 1965.
Romola Farr is a nom de plume.
My thoughts: Lily has a terrible time of it at this horrific boarding school – already mourning her mother, her twin brother, resident at a nearby boys’ school, drowns, various adult men take advantage of her, a cruel and monstrous doctor forces unwanted examinations and drugs her, the headmistress is too distracted by her terrible marriage and the school’s financial issues to care about the single student at the school in the holidays, and there’s a conspiracy going on with links to the Second World War and the Cold War.
When Lily starts to be haunted by the ghost of a missing, and probably murdered, schoolgirl, who nobody really bothered to look for, things get even worse. Asking questions about Eva’s disappearance draws unwanted attention and makes her situation worse.
Cut off from anyone who might help her, Lily takes risks trying to escape from her school. But orders have been issued, her father is a diplomat in Moscow and his remaining child is leverage. Can Lily survive the threats against her and stop the conspiracy that threatens her and the school? Can she also get justice for Eva?
Shocking, dark and violent, this is basically the inverse of every boarding school story Enid Blyton ever wrote, replete with murder, anti-semitism, violence and cruelty. I liked it, but feel a bit like I really shouldn’t.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 