This is first and foremost, a book about the struggles women face. In a dual timeline, two women connected by a rather sinister building, must work through the problems of being an unmarried woman in the 1960s and a woman dealing with menopause in the present. Not a mystery, rather a detailed character study and a statement about the misconceptions women must face

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A dual timeline mystery set on the dramatic cliffs of Cornwall.

2024 - Amanda has followed her husband to the isolated boarding school, Hallows Abbey. She’s dealing with a lot of changes in her life. An empty nester who’s going through perimenopause, she’s struggling with her identity, now that her relationship with her children has changed, her marriage is in crisis due to the demands of her husband’s new position. She can’t help but feel the loneliness creeping in. When she starts hearing mysterious crying she decides to look further into the tragedy that occurred at the school some years earlier. Could the two instances be related?

1966 - Theresa thought she would finally be out from under her religious father’s thumb and finally have the independence she craves only to discover she’s left one cage for another. She longs for adventure, though that’s hard to come by when you’re stranded at a remote school with a strict code of conduct. When she meets Trystan, a local fisherman, she finally finds the adventure she’s been seeking. But when she makes the wrong decision, the consequences are tragic.

I expected this to be more of a mystery, but really it’s a character study of a woman who’s going through a lot of emotional changes in her life and her marriage is in crisis. At the 50% mark, there hasn’t really been any forward movement toward solving the mystery of the tragedy that occurred at the school. The pacing is very slow, and while I appreciate the care Ms. Scott takes in creating a complex character with real life problems, I didn’t find it as captivating as the idea of the mystery. In fact, I felt as if it were an informational brochure on perimenopause, which after a while becomes tedious. This read more like women’s fiction with a mystery subplot, which isn’t bad, just not what I had expected.

I did find Theresa’s section of the story much more compelling. I felt it had more of a plot and the pacing was a lot better. The characters were much more fleshed out than in Amanda’s timeline, which made for a much more engaging read. The two timelines tie up neatly in the end, and while a pleasant read, I was left disappointed.

Victoria Scott, The House on the Cliff, Boldwood Books, October 2025.

Thank you, Boldwood Books and NetGalley for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

The House on the Cliff is the fourth of Victoria Scott’s novels that I have enjoyed. However, although there is much to admire, I felt a little disappointed. The pacing was slow at times; the writing would have benefitted from being sharper and more focussed. Also, although I was impressed with Scott’s exploration of the nature of perimenstrual impact on women and their relationships, this was a little overworked. The positive feature of the way in which Scott dealt with this issue was that the difficulties were validated, and their effect on the present-day main character’s relationships did not dismiss the real challenges she faced and had to reconcile with her marriage, her changing responsibilities and even the seemingly simple task of leaving a familiar environment for an new future.
Amanda is the main present-day character, and she and her husband, Mike, have moved to Cornwall where he has been promoted to deputy head in a boarding Catholic school with a long history. They have not only left London, which is a wrench for Amanda, but even more disconcerting for her, their two children have begun their independent lives of education and possible career building. The school staff comprise monks and lay people; both the head and Michael’s co-deputy are monks. Amanda begins work at the school, as has been her habit, as an assistant to the school nurse.

The past becomes a feature of Amanda’s life at the school when she sees a plaque memorialising a disaster off the coast with all the crew, schoolboys and teachers missing, believed drowned. Therese is the main character whose story provides the details of the school in the 1960s, the matters leading up to the disaster, and her personal fears and problems – which contrast with Amanda’s mature concerns.

Both storylines offer social commentary; Therese’s background, her passionate but disastrous choices, and her care for the boys all reflect the concern Scott shows for the issues raised in the present. This is what I particularly admire about Scott’s work. Despite the problems I raised at the beginning of this review I look forward to her next novel. The accessible way she features social commentary as well as engaging storylines makes her an author to follow.