generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. But this year the wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork, and information technology are beginning to overshadow St. Oswald's tradition, and Straitley is finally, and reluctantly, contemplating retirement. He is joined this term by five new faculty members, including one who -- unbeknownst to Straitley and everyone else -- holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Oswald's ways and secrets. Harbouring dark ties to the school's past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: to destroy St. Oswald's."
The novel is a psychological thriller, which features cunning deceits, flawed childhood, hidden identity, class distinction and revenge; the story ends with a deliciously unexpected twist at the end. There are two narrators; Roy Straitley, the Classics Master, on the eve of his century (100th) term who is affectionately referred to, by his students, as Quasi or Quasimodo as he is a trifle hunched and whose rooms are in the Bell Tower. Straitley is a Luddite; ignoring all requests to attend to his email, he swears in Latin and smokes (banned by the school) secret Gauloises in his office. The other narrator is the unnamed perpetrator who is bent on revenge for a myriad of both real and imagined slights committed by St Oswalds; a sociopath who is filled with hatred and bitterness. This perpetrator knows no rules he will not break; somehow he has infiltrated the teachers' ranks, and become one of them.
Harris is able to evoke a real sense of place and conveys a perfect understanding of when to show and not tell, and how to fully immerse her readers in this rarefied setting. Her exploration of identity is remarkably nuanced. Age, gender, class, psychology, elitism, work ethic, personal value system... all are at play in this novel. The prose on a technical level is without fault; the tone shifts effortlessly from playful to foreboding and then back again. The mystery itself is very absorbing - despite the richness of the writing, the novel is a page-turner.
I truly loved this book. It was everything I was wanting from it. An engaging mystery, with detailed characterisation, a unique aesthetic and a nuanced interweaving of many of my favourite themes. I highly recommend it.
Age Rating 16+. Mentions of alcoholism, sexual abuse and murder.
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