The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel, 2019.

Emmy’s mother is a child psychologist and so-called “parenting guru.” She writes books of advice for people about raising children, and she spends so much time on her work that she has little time for her own daughter. She arranges for Emmy to attend a series of high-ranking private schools, switching her around any time the school’s ranking changes for the worse. She doesn’t pay much attention to what Emmy does on her own while she’s working, spending her evenings, weekends, and holidays making frozen meals and watching tv. Emmy has switched schools too much to have any lasting friendships, and her mother isn’t interested in her favorite extracurricular activity, soccer. For her mother, Emmy mainly represents one of her credentials as a parenting guru. When Emmy does well and appears happy and supportive of her single mother’s work, it looks good for the media. Her mother insists that she do well and look happy, not paying much attention to how Emmy actually feels or what she really wants.

Emmy doesn’t have a father because her father disappeared when she was three years old. She has no idea what happened to him, and her mother refuses to talk about him. Then, one day, she receives a letter telling her to take care of her father’s relics, if she finds them. Emmy knows that she can’t ask her mother about them because her mother got rid of almost everything that reminds her of Emmy’s father. However, a search of the attic reveals a hidden box of strange medals with a note from her father. The note apologizes to Emmy’s mother and asks Emmy to keep the relics safe. Who could have written that letter to Emmy, alerting her to their existence?

Then, Emmy’s mother announces something that changes everything for Emmy. She is going to be working on a reality tv show about parenting, counseling families with problems. She is excited and talks about how important it is to be helping people. However, that means that she’s going to be traveling, and because she can’t be home to look after Emmy (as much as she usually does), that means that Emmy will be attending boarding school. The boarding school that Emmy’s mother has chosen for her is in England. Emmy is stunned and worried about being sent away to boarding school, especially one in another country, but her feelings begin to change when her mother lets it slip that she met Emmy’s father in England. Her father was English, not American. When Emmy realizes that she will be going to the place her father came from, she feels like she might experience some of the connection to her father that she has craved. Her mother says that her father has no living relatives, but Emmy still feels like she might sense a piece of her father by going to England.

When she arrives at the school, Emmy still has mixed feelings about it. Her house mother, Madame Boyd, warns her that the work load will be difficult for her, especially because she’s transferring from another country. She’s been taught mostly American history and not British history, and she hasn’t learned any Latin or Greek, which are not typical parts of an American education but are classics at British boarding schools. Emmy worries about whether or not she’ll be able to catch up to the other students, and she’s devastated when her mother tells her not to sign up for soccer because she really wants her to focus on her studies. Soccer was the one thing Emmy had been really looking forward to doing, and she thought it would be a great way to make some friends. Her roommate immediately hates her and is nasty to her because she had been hoping to get a room all to herself this year.

Mrs. Boyd has Emmy sign up for the Latin society to help her catch up in Latin, but it turns out that the Latin society is a strange and exclusive club. The first time that Emmy hears other students talking about it, she learns that the members have a reputation for dangerous stunts, for which they never seem to get into trouble but which often end in people getting hurt. Other students can’t understand what’s going on with the club or how the members are so privileged. Even getting into their meeting place is mysterious. It’s kind of a test for new members to figure out how to use the secret entrance. However, there are no other girls in the club. Traditionally, it only admits boys, even though the school is co-educational. The boys aren’t happy about having Emmy there, and both the Latin teacher and the humanities teacher try to discourage Emmy from staying in the society. Emmy remains anyway because it gives her a convenient study hall, away from her mean-spirited roommate.

Emmy soon learns that other students at the school have home lives that aren’t too different from her own. Some of them have absent fathers, and others are neglected by their parents because they’re busy with careers and/or travel. Even Emmy’s nasty roommate feels like her parents don’t really care about her or notice what’s going on in her life. Emmy makes friends with Mrs. Boyd’s daughter Lola, who is also a student at the school, and a boy named Jack. Lola is on the school’s soccer (football in England) team, and Emmy joins the team against her mother’s wishes when there’s an opening. Since her mother is in a different country, Emmy figures that what her mother doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

A class assignment about the dissolution of the monasteries in England under Henry VIII brings to light some disturbing aspects of the school and its history. Emmy is aware that the school was once an abbey and cathedral, and it shows in the architecture of the buildings. When she, Lola, and Jack decide to do some research about the school’s history for their class project, Jack becomes very nervous, and the girls notice that he tries to steer them away from reading certain books or looking into particular topics. Lola confronts Jack about this, and Jack admits that he knows something that the girls don’t know: the school is home to a dangerous secret society made up of students, faculty, and alumni.

The origins of the mysterious Order of Black Hollow Lane extend back to the dissolution of the abbey that was once on this site and Catholic dissidents. However, it has taken larger dimensions and more sinister purposes since then. Jack believes that they are involved in a number of illegal dealings and that people who pose a threat to the Order suffer mysterious “accidents” that aren’t really accidents. Jack knows about the Order because his father and older brothers are part of it. He was supposed to be part of the Order himself, but he had bad experiences with them when he first came to the school, and the things that his father and brothers talk about among themselves frighten him. He ended up rejecting membership, something that has caused tension between him and his family and the current members of the Order. He doesn’t think his father and brothers mean him any harm, but he knows that they’re involved with shady dealings and suspicious people. The Latin society at school is often used as a recruiting ground for the Order, which is part of the reason for some of their noticeably dangerous stunts. The “stunts” are initiation/hazing for potential members or ways of punishing dissenters in their ranks. This secret dark side of the Latin society is also part of the reason why they don’t want Emmy there. Jack advises both Emmy and Lola not to let on that they know the Order exists and not to look into their activities any further because its members are prepared to do dangerous things to keep their secrets.

However, forgetting about the Order is not an option for Emmy. As she receives other messages about her father and gradually begins to put together pieces of school history and her father’s history, Emmy comes to realize that her father was once a student at the same school and that he was also once part of the Order. She comes to believe that the Order is the reason why her father disappeared years ago. Did they kill him to protect their secrets, or is he in hiding from them somewhere? When Emmy’s room is ransacked, she realizes that someone is after something she has. Years ago, her father took something that belonged to the society, and now, they want it back. Someone is willing to do anything to get it.

My Reaction (and some spoilers)

I really enjoyed this mystery! In a way, this book reminds me of Harry Potter without the magic spells. The only magic is the magic of learning in an environment that inspires the imagination! Boarding school stories often focus on friends and relationships, which are important and a major part of this book, but this one also makes use of real world history, literary references, and classical studies. It fits very well with the popular genre/aesthetic of Dark Academia. We get to see details of what the students are studying, and some of the lessons apply directly to the mystery in the story. As with the Harry Potter series, the adults who truly care about the students try to steer the children away from danger, while the same time, providing them with the knowledge and opportunities to get closer to the source of that danger. It’s a contradiction, but it helps move the action forward and gives the kids the answers they need to some important questions.

Books with secret societies and children with mysterious pasts are always compelling. In this book, we learn both the origins and purpose of this particular secret society. The society had its origins in the dissolution of the monasteries and religious dissent, but its purpose now is to maneuver its members into positions of power and material wealth. Everything it does is with that aim. It commands absolute loyalty from its members, and it ruthlessly punishes anyone who opposes it. They are loyal to each other, but only to the point when someone interferes with their money and power-oriented goals. Then, they’re prepared to throw each other under a bus. They are even prepared to murder former friends. Nobody dies during this book, but Emmy comes close to being one of their victims. They are not troubled by the idea of either injuring or killing children. They nurture some students as future members, but that’s with the idea of using them as resources to promote their goals and profits, not really because they care about people.

For much of the book, the main characters don’t know who to trust, besides each other. Because of Jack’s family’s connection to the Order, they know not to trust his brothers and other members of the Latin society or the Latin teacher. However, they can’t be entirely sure which other adults are involved. The kids are left to their own devices when learning about the Order and the truth behind Emmy’s father’s disappearance. Emmy is driven by her need to learn more about her father and the reasons why he disappeared or left when she was so young, but she and her friends lose the option to stop when the Order realizes who her father is and that she might possess something that they desperately want. Emmy’s life is in real danger from them, and all of the characters are aware of it.

There are themes in the story about relationship between parents and children. Most of the children at the boarding school seem to have difficult relationships with one or both parents, and there are kids whose parents are divorced or separated. Some children feel like their parents are out of touch with things that are happening in their daily lives, and others actually clash with their parents or feel like they’re being neglected or exploited by parents. Jack’s relationship with his father and brothers is particularly troubled because he knows what they’re involved in and has rejected the opportunity to join the society with them. His father and brothers are angry and bitter with him over his rejection. Jack doesn’t think that they mean him any direct harm, but they are cold to him, and former friends bully him over his decision without his brothers doing anything to stop it. Arguably, Madame Boyd is the most involved parent in the book because her daughter, Lola, attends the boarding school where she teaches. The kids don’t tell Madame Boyd everything they’re doing, but they do confide some things in her and appeal to her for answers and help.

In the beginning, Emmy doubts how much her mother really cares about her because she’s so wrapped up in her career, and she tends to use Emmy as a kind of credential and showpiece of her parenting skills. Emmy feels like most of her mother’s interest in her is related to promoting her own career. However, her mother does call her regularly throughout the book to see how she’s doing, and through their separation, her mother comes to realize how much she misses just having Emmy around. Emmy’s mother cares about her. Her career ambitions and desire to help other people with their children sometimes gets in the way of really spending quality time with Emmy, but after sending Emmy to boarding school, she realizes how she needs to appreciate the time that she and Emmy spend together more. Emmy also stands up for herself and what she wants, telling her mother that she wants to keep attending the boarding school with her friends and playing soccer, and her mother listens to her and agrees that what’s best for her is what enriches her life and learning the most. Her mother isn’t happy that Emmy signed up for soccer without telling her, but she admits that it doesn’t seem to have interfered with her schoolwork, so she agrees that Emmy can keep playing.

Many questions about the secret society are answered before the end of the book, but the story is a little open-ended, too. Emmy learns what the society is and what it does and what her father’s involvement with it was. She knows that her father is still alive and that he does care about her, although she doesn’t know exactly where he is. There is a sequel to the book called The Secret of White Stone Gate.