- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 808 KB
- Print Length: 235 pages
- Publisher: Corvus (20 Feb. 2020)
- Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07TXMNN9Z
Synopsis
Twenty-five years ago, a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl and her charismatic teacher disappeared without trace…
When Louisa arrives at Temple House, an elite catholic boarding school, she quickly finds herself drawn to sophisticated fellow pupil Victoria and their young bohemian art teacher, Mr Lavelle. The three of them form a bond that seems to offer an escape from the repressive regime of the nuns who run the cloistered school. Until Louisa and Mr Lavelle suddenly vanish.
Years later, a journalist with a childhood connection to Louisa determines to resolve the mystery. Her search for the truth will uncover a tragic, mercurial tale of suppressed desire and long-buried secrets. It will shatter lives and lay a lost soul to rest.
Review
The Temple House Vanishing is the debut novel from Rachel Donohue, and I have to say a very accomplished one. In 1990, Louisa starts Temple House boarding school as a scholarship student. In a school full of the rich and privileged Louisa is an outsider, different to the others. She finds refuge in her friendship with Victoria, and the young charismatic art teacher. She is brought into their bohemian world, a place of safety, until one night when Louisa and Mr Lavelle simply disappear. As the twenty fifth anniversary their disappearance approaches, and the case remains unsolved, a journalist who knew Louisa decides to look into it again, determined to find out what happened that night.
The Temple House Vanishing is one of those books that is full of atmosphere, mystery with an underlying feeling of tension and unease. There is always something salacious about a student and teacher going missing, imaginations go into overdrive, conclusions are drawn without fact, and this forms the basis for this book. The book is set in 1990, when Louisa started at Temple House, and in 2015 when the journalist, unnamed but female, starts to look into the case, and the characters of the people involved. It is the air of difference, otherness, that brings Louisa, Victoria and Mr Lavelle together. Victoria may come from a rich background but she has an etherial air about her, and doesn’t mix with the other girls, which is what draws Louisa. Louisa, being on a scholarship, is made to feel different, not having the correct ‘indoor shoes’ not being from an important family she is looked down on. Mr Lavelle, is very modern in his outlook, charismatic, good looking and an antithesis to the strictness of the nuns. He allows the girls to express themselves, treats them as adults, enabling a toxic mix of teenage hormones, adoration, and a heightened sense of emotions; a dangerous combination.
Rachel Donohue doesn’t shy away from the difficult issues of class, religion, privilege, family, difference, sexual tension, and catholic guilt. These are all very decisive issues and mixed together prove to be a toxic cocktail. This isn’t a fast paced read, but the characters are well developed and as a reader we get a detailed insight into their psyche, you feel you really know and understand them. Rachel Donohue writes with such skill and ease, the prose is lyrical and poetic making this book such a joy to read. There is a sense of inevitability in parts of this book, fate playing its hand as its all building to that one night. It reminded me in part of the brilliant classic Picnic at Hanging Rock.
The Temple House Vanishing is a stunning debut from Rachel Donohue. It is atmospheric in its setting of this isolated boarding school and story of Louisa, Victoria and Mr Lavelle. The air of mystery is kept throughout, and you can’t help but be drawn in to Louisa and Victoria’s world, where the lines are blurred and loyalties tested. Beautifully written and compelling to read, this is an impressive debut novel and I can’t wait to read Rachel Donohue’s next book. A simply sublime reading experience.
