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Nine Coaches Waiting
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Plot Summary of Nine Coaches Waiting
"Accepting a job as governess to a boy, an Englishwoman arrives at an isolated mansion in France. She stumbles straight into a murderous intrigue and puts her life on the line to protect her young charge. Nine Coaches Waiting has become a classic in the romantic suspense genre."
Regina Pounds, Resident Scholar

"Linda Martin, a young English orphan fresh out of school was strangly enough asked to go to France, to be an English teacher for a young nine year old boy.

After arriving at the large estate, she finds the boy is also an orphan. Being only nine, his uncle and aunt are caring for him, as well as the estate until he comes of age.

Linda finds the boy pale, and unhappy. He seems to be frightened of his uncle, and he doesn't seem close to his aunt. They don't seem to be to interested in the boy's happyness, or care how lonely and sad he seems to by.   

As time passes, the boy grows close to his new English teacher, but then accidents start happining. The accidents are all life threatining, but there is always an excuse, and no suspects can be found"

Linda Schaile, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of Nine Coaches Waiting
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of story - very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging
Time/era of story: - 1930's-1950's
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 90%
Special suspect? - lover
Misc. Murder Plotlets - Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator - amateur citizen investigator - british mystery (I say!)
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - teacher
Age: - 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental: Yes
Eccentric: - eccentric
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - French
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status: - wealthy
Has special powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main antagonist: - is very quick - mind reading - mind control - can read emotions
Eccentric: Yes - obsessed - eccentric
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an average amount - throughout most of the book.
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure - power
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - missing body parts/abilities

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - France
Forest? Yes
Misc setting - fancy mansion

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - 1
Sex Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Nine Coaches Waiting
Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey
Murder in the Blue Room by Elliott Roosevelt
Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
The Three Coffins by John Dickson Carr
Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe


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Mary Stewart Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Linda Schaile  

SCHOLARS:
J.C. Clark  


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