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  A blackly humorous mystery with a very large twist.

  There is an art to writing a good old fashioned mystery novel, and initially it appears that Joanne Harris does not have it. From the very first few pages of “Gentlemen & Players” it seems that we know exactly what will follow; no delicate hints lie this way, more clumsy clues and badly hidden plotlines in the form of a slighted school boy and his childish revenge. Ah, but not all is as it seems; read on, dear Reader, read on!

  As Latin Master, Roy Straightly, returns for his one hundredth term at St Oswald’s, a grammar school for boys, he is plagued by a feeling that all is not well. The school is undergoing the changes that will bring it into the twenty-first century; new subjects, new faces, new technology... And brand new problems to accompany them. As term progresses and the petty quarrels and inconveniences of day to day academia take a more sinister turn, Roy is torn between the belief that a menacing hand is at work in the school and the more troubling thought that maybe, just maybe, he’s getting too old for the teaching game and should be considering retirement.

  “Gentlemen & Players” ambles on at a steady, easy-reading pace, leaving the audience feeling smug in the knowledge that they’ve pipped the writer at the post and no turn of the plot will come as any surprise... And then the ground shifts and the fictional world of St Oswald’s comes tumbling down, taking the gob-smacked reader with it.

  This is a very clever story; a tale of darkness, obsession and revenge, and in the style of all the very best mystery novels, with a very large twist at the tail. Blackly humorous and rich in the atmosphere of the “incomprehensibly biscuity, hamsterish smell” of school, “Gentlemen & Players” will keep you guessing right to the very end.

  Review by Emily Hirschmann on 14:04, 04 Apr 2008

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