The Vanished Girl

Readers thrilled by the ghostly goings on in Natasha Mac a’Bháird’s first Scyamore Hill Mystery will be delighted to discover that there’s just as much excitement and intrigue in the second. It opens on the day John F Kennedy was shot, an event that causes real shock and upset to pupils and teachers. There’s further disruption in the dorm Clare shares with her friends Rose and Molly when they learn that someone will have to move out to make space for a new girl, Amy, who, unusually, is arriving mid-term. Despite their friendliness, Amy is reserved about her home life and seems to avoid questions about her past; and maybe there’s something not quite right about newly-arrived nun, Sister Eva, either. She’s there ostensibly to help with the school’s production of The Wizard of Oz and that, plus the competition for places on the junior hockey team take the girls’ minds off any potential mystery, at least initially. But they’ve got the bug for investigating and just as well when it appears Amy is in real danger. The adventure element is cleverly handled to make our schoolgirl detectives nicely credibly and the period details very well realised too but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the boarding school setting will be the real source of pleasure for readers: the camaraderie, the fun of sharing a dorm, of helping and supporting one another and watching your friends do well, sharing secrets, getting one over rivals. It ends with all ends tied up and will leave readers eagerly awaiting the next helping of danger at Sycamore Hill.