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This set-up is sprinkled liberally with all the ingredients of a classic murder mystery. Ida arrives at St Anne\u2019s to find the lovely watercolour painting on the prospectus is nothing like the school, which is an 18th-century haunted house-type manor with broken windows and cracked buttresses. A student once got lost on her way to geography class and was never found, Ida\u2019s new friend Sophie tells her. Ida\u2019s housemate Louise is said to have set a girl on fire and pushed another out of a window. The strange headmistress is Miss Christie. Agatha herself would feel at home in this place that, at first, feels rife with uneasy secrets.<\/p>\n
The omens continue to pile up when several girls start developing a twitching disorder and are committed to hospital. The first among them, the head girl, looks as if she is going to die. A media frenzy takes off as they search for the culprit or cause. It couldn\u2019t be the Soviets \u2026 or could it?<\/p>\n
Wait was inspired by the outbreak of a mysterious illness in teenage girls in Le Roy, New York, in 2011 \u2014 a story that has already spawned an award-winning podcast, Hysterical<\/a>, and the 2014 novel The Fever by Megan Abbott. That\u2019s not to say her take is unwelcome. She is a master of zippy one-liners. \u201cI\u2019m like Icarus (ie a f***ing idiot),\u201d the doctor James says after a catastrophic press conference. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with being a Jew,\u201d Diane tells Louise. \u201cThank you, Diane \u2026 I was thinking of killing myself but now I can see there\u2019s no need,\u201d Louise bites back.<\/p>\n By sticking to a resolutely anticlimactic plot, it allows Wait to lampoon rumour frenzies and debunk the outlandish explanations of female hysteria. She also captures a time when women\u2019s education was often still an afterthought. The students at St Anne\u2019s are witty and capable, but their only real teaching comes from listening to Radio 4\u2019s Today programme. <\/p>\n