Portobello Book Blog

Moira Forsyth’s latest novel, Waiting for Lindsay, is published today. Of course, in the current circumstances, there is not much can be done to celebrate publication day in the real world so I am doing my bit by sharing my review.

Waiting for Lindsay is about a family whose teenage daughter, Lindsay, vanished one sunny day more than 30 years ago, during a trip to the local beach. As you can imagine, this devastated the family, none more so than her siblings and cousins who were playing on the beach with her the day she went missing. The book takes place mostly in the present and examines the relationships between the family members. With many of the characters being young when this event took place, it seemed that no-one really wanted to discuss with them what had happened, leaving them all with unresolved questions and feelings of guilt.

Perhaps because she was really the main female character, the character I liked most was Annie. She seemed a real lynchpin for the family and there for anyone who needed her, despite her own disappointments in life. I can’t say I agreed with all her decisions, particularly when it came to her husband who I really did not like. However, I felt that Moira Forsyth wrote about her very perceptively.

This is not so much about what happened to Lindsay but the story of a family on hold, waiting for resolution. All of a sudden several events occur which make the family finally start to talk to each other and share thoughts, fears and secrets. It seemed to me that this would be the beginning of the family finally starting to heal. With well-drawn characters, Waiting for Lindsay is insightful and compelling, an exploration of family dynamics when that family has a part missing.

My thanks to the publishers Sandstone Press for sending me a copy of the book to review. Waiting for Lindsay (originally published by Sceptre Books) is published today by Sandstone and you will find various online buying options on the publishers’ website here: Waiting for Lindsay

From the back of the book

All afternoon the voices called, the two syllables of her name singing through the woods, down the steep garden, and across the sands to the sea.

On a hot July day, thirteen year old Lindsay Mathieson walked along the shore, past the rocks and out of sight. For ever. Thirty years later, a new crisis draws her family back to that familiar beach, and to memories too long buried.

About the author

Moira Forsyth grew up in Aberdeen, lived in England for nearly twenty years, and is now in the Highlands. She is the author of four previous novels and many short stories and poems published in anthologies and magazines. Waiting for Lindsay and David’s Sisters, originally published by Sceptre, are now available as e-books from Sandstone Press, which also published Tell Me Where You Are in 2010 and The Treacle Well, in 2015.