Havoc

'Tragedy and comedy fuse together perfectly in a labyrinthine mystery of emotional and psychological complexity' Jo Brand Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls' boarding school on a remote part of the south English coast. Despite the eccentricities of her new Headmistress, who warns her of the dangers of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the bomb , St Anne's seems like a refuge to Ida. But all this is about to change. For a start, her new room-mate is the infamous Louise Adler, potential arsonist and hardened outcast. Meanwhile, the geography teacher Eleanor Alston, in her late thirties, a disastrous love affair in her wake, faces the new term with weary resignation. But the fragile ecosystem of the school is disrupted by the arrival of a new teacher, Matthew Langfield. Eleanor has an uneasy feeling he is not who he says he is. And things only get worse when a mysterious sickness starts to spread throughout the school, causing strange limb jerks and seizures among the pupils. What is happening to the girls of St Anne's? Could there be a poisoner among them? Is Ida's scholarship really an escape, or is it instead a new nightmare? Praise for Rebecca Wait: 'IT'LL EASILY BE ONE OF MY BOOKS OF THE YEAR' Hannah Beckerman 'It's a warm book and a touching one. And did I mention it's funny? Just read it. You'll see' The Times 'Funny, tender and sad' Sunday Express 'If you liked Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss , you'll love this novel' Good Housekeeping 'One of the richest explorations of family dysfunction I've read' i newspaper 'Shades of Fleabag in this smart, funny drama' Mail on Sunday 'An enjoyably bittersweet novel about a dysfunctional modern family' Independent 'Razor-sharp ' Observer 'One of the funniest novels you'll read this year' Guardian