But then a corpse is discovered on the school grounds, a development that doesn't seem to surprise Ms Buckfast, nor worry her unduly. All of which constitutes a disaster, as far as the misogynistic Roy is concerned. (Although, Roy being Roy, he would probably remind us at this point that Canute was being ironic, and was trying to demonstrate the futility of trying to hold back the waves.)Ī Narrow Door (Orion, £19.99), the third novel to feature Roy Straitley after Different Class (2016), begins with Roy largely submerged, and drowning rather than waving: not only has St Oswald's appointed Rebecca Buckfast as its first headmistress in its 500-year history, but its previously narrow doors have been thrown so wide that even girls can now file through as pupils.
First introduced by Joanne Harris in Gentlemen and Players (2005), Roy teaches classics at St Oswald’s grammar school for boys, and revels in his role as a kind of King Canute vainly attempting to stem the tide of progress. We hear a lot about the “likability” of fictional characters these days, a concept that Roy Straitley would likely dismiss as the worst kind of millennial tosh. 'Crime novel or literary novel? Categories really don't matter readers will find themselves comprehensively gripped' Independent 'A masterpiece of misdirection' Val McDermid Praise for Joanne Harris's other books set in the St Oswald's world - which all read as standalone thrillers: She'll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.īut Rebecca is here to make her mark. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls. It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. Now I'm in charge, the gates are my gates. 'Irresistibly readable, dark and brilliant with a masterful emotional punch' CATRIONA WARD
'A dark and richly enjoyable novel that already feels like a classic' ELLY GRIFFITHS 'A complex, chilling mystery full of shifting truths and dark corners where the unburied past lies in wait' TAMMY COHEN 'A clever chess game of repressed fears, power struggles, secrets and lies' LUCY ATKINS
kept me enthralled till the final pages' CHRIS WHITAKER 'Dark, Gothic, and propulsively readable - past secrets and present discoveries entangle in an intricately crafted conclusion' RUTH WARE 'A psychological thriller you can't put down and an antiheroine you won't forget' HARLAN COBEN 'Exhilarating, addictive, fierce' BRIDGET COLLINS 'A dark world of emotional complexity and betrayal, where twist follows twist and nothing is what it seems' ALEX MICHAELIDES Your favourite authors have been gripped by this electric psychological thriller!
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