The Furies

Starred review from June 9, 2014
When Alex Morris accepts a former professor’s offer to fill a sudden vacancy at an Edinburgh school for troubled teens, the last problem the young London stage director anticipates is having too powerful an impact on her students. But that’s precisely what happens when the Greek dramas she assigns start to resonate with her fierce, yet fragile 15-year-olds—with life-shattering consequences—in Haynes’s haunting debut novel. Though Haynes read classics at Cambridge, nothing in her resume as a comedian, journalist, broadcaster, and children’s author (The Great Escape) quite sets the stage for the book’s emotionally raw characters—especially Alex and her would-be acolyte, Mel, who struggles to make sense of a capricious world despite profound deafness—as they march inexorably toward the fog-shrouded precipice. Cleverly plotted, cannily paced, and unafraid to pose questions that don’t have easy answers, this accomplished psychological mystery demonstrates the way that sometimes it may take being lost in the darkness to enable us to glimpse the light. Agent: Patrick Walsh, Conville and Walsh Literary Agency (U.K.).

August 1, 2014
An inexperienced, grieving teacher discovers the monster lurking within one of her seemingly innocent charges. Since her fiance, Luke, unexpectedly died, Alex Morris has lost interest in her work as a sought-after theatrical director. Now she simply wants to get out of London, to get away from everything that reminds her of Luke. So when her former drama teacher, Robert, offers her a temporary teaching position in Edinburgh, she jumps at the opportunity. A last chance for children who either cannot or will not function well at other institutions, the school is housed in a creepy Gothic structure, and Alex's classroom is, of course, in the basement, the architectural equivalent of the school's repressed psyche, complete with musty smells, bad lighting, and surly, emotionally disturbed students: scrappy Ricky; dark, lumbering Jono; petite, neat Carly; beautiful, hostile Annika; and deaf, eager Mel. Debut novelist (and former comedian) Haynes deftly captures the anxiety that is characteristic of a novice teacher's mind, as well as the snarkiness of the teenage students. Rather dubiously reasoning that drama therapy could help them exorcise their darker fears, Alex decides to teach Greek tragedies to her young charges. She encourages them to keep journals reflecting upon the disturbed characters, and she can't help but answer their increasingly probing questions about her own troubled past. Soon enough, the plays, riddled with guilt and vengeance, inspire one of her students to follow Alex on her days off, hoping to discover her secrets. Like a Greek tragedy, the tale drives inexorably toward a calamitous revelation-a revelation rather heavily foreshadowed by the title and the students' syllabus. Sharply drawn characters, damaged and raw, enrich the psychological dimensions of this angst-filled mystery.

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June 15, 2014

An up-and-coming London theater director, Alex Morris has it all and knows it. Everything changes in one afternoon when a stranger murders her fiance. Unable to cope, Alex moves to Edinburgh, Scotland, where her former drama professor offers her a teaching position at a school he runs for troubled students. Alex doesn't feel qualified for the job, and it only gets worse when she meets the class the other teachers warn her about: a group of five 15-year-olds. The teens eventually warm up to Alex as she teaches them the Greek tragedies, but the plays begin to influence their lives, and Alex loses what little control she had. Told through two points of view, that of Alex and that of one of her students, the novel unfolds as both narrators hint at a looming tragedy. Haynes's debut novel cleverly supplies suspense and an exploration of grief, blame, and revenge. Alex's narrative is genuine, although her student's diary entries read as though they had been written by an adult rather than an adolescent. Despite the predictable outcome, some details are surprising and the novel's conclusion is gratifying. VERDICT Fans of suspense fiction with depth will especially enjoy this read. [Library marketing.]--Amy Stenftenagel, Washington Cty. Lib. Syst., Forest Lake, MN

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2014
After her fianc''s death, young theater director Alex Morris drops everything and retreats to Edinburgh, lured by a job offer from her favorite theater professor, Robert, who has started a school for troubled teens and wants Alex to teach drama therapy. Her fourth-year group, in particular, is a study in anger-management issues. Surprisingly, after treating her to a dazzling array of attitude problems, the fourth-years demand more challenging material than her predecessor's collage projects. Eager to engage them, Alex introduces the group to Greek tragedies filled with enough love, murder, and angst to maintain their interest. But the plays awaken interests beyond the classroom; one of the teens begins stalking Alex and discovers her hidden tragedy. Steady pacing paired with well-timed foreshadowing and fully realized characters make this one compelling from the beginning. Fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History (1992), Erin Kelly's The Poison Tree (2011), and Tana French's The Likeness (2008) will likely enjoy the new perspective Haynes' conversational style offers to similar material.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)