My friend – the friend that asked me to come along to Eze when I first arrived in Nice – has been recommending books by Mary Stewart to me since I met her. However, because the Singapore library does not stock her ebooks (only paper copies) and because Kobo Singapore was trying to charge me almost USD10 for one title, I didn’t manage to buy this until recently, when I realised that I could buy from Kobo France. That, by the way, made me lose access to my library books for a while so what I’ve learnt from this whole episode is that it’s troublesome to keep switching stores.

But anyway, no regrets for all the trouble I went through to read this because it was an excellent book! It’s full of drama and mystery and I enjoyed every single minute of it.

Nine Coaches Waiting starts with Linda Martin’s arrival in France. She’s here to be the governess of Philippe de Valmy, but she’s hiding a secret – she’s fluent in French due to French heritage on her mother’s side. Her employees are a bit strange but her ward is easy to manage. Until strange accidents start happening and Linda starts to suspect that there may be something more going on.

The first thing I noticed and enjoyed about this book was its narrative voice! Nine Coaches Waiting is told in first person and for some reason, it reminded me of the narrative voice in Rebecca. I’ll share a quote from each book so you can compare:

“We reached Paris just as the light was fading. It had been a soft, grey March day, with the smell of spring in the air. The wet tarmac glistened underfoot; over the airfield the sky looked very high, rinsed by the afternoon’s rain to a pale clear blue.”

Nine Coaches Waiting

and

“Down the twisting road we went without a check, without a word, a great ridge of cloud stretched above the setting sun and the air was cold and clean. Suddenly, he began to talk about Manderley.

Rebecca

I hope I’m not the only one that thinks they sound similar!

The narrative style definitely made Linda a sympathetic character almost immediately. I really liked how she’s so sensible about things – she recognises when her emotions may be silly – but she can still see the poetry in things. She’s a great heroine, caring towards Philippe and decisive when need be. She might have fallen into instalove with Raoul, the son of her employer, but the romance storyline actually mattered to the plot and integrated well into the main story.

And of course, the plot was great! Stewart skillfully set the stage, increasing the tension slowly as Linda gets to know the surroundings and the people, and then when the time is right, sets us off on an exhilarating adventure. I won’t give away the ending, but I generally thought that the pacing made sense and was unable to put down the book once it entered its final act.

Overall, this was a really fun read! Nine Coaches Waiting was full of drama and starred a heroine that I really enjoyed rooting for. I’m definitely interested in reading more from Mary Stewart, but I think I’ll wait to go back to Singapore and borrow the physical books to do so.

Featured Image: Photo from Canva