A Narrow Door: The electric psychological thriller from the Sunday Times bestseller

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Straitley again: He´s a wonderful character;it´s a letdown that the author had him brought down (killed, that is) by a two bit psycopath (however traumatised ,that´s what she is).

Tā ir tā pati skola, kurā mācījās viņas brālis, kurš pazuda bez vēsts, kad Rebekai bija vien 5 gadi. Written by an author who is skilful at keeping us guessing right up to the very last page, I recommend highly to her many fans and those that enjoy psychological thrillers. The storytelling is superb, the characterisation is masterful, it’s multilayered, extremely clever and absolutely impossible to put down.The only other modern book in the genre I’ve enjoyed this much was We Begin at the End, but this book had more in common with The Maidens and The Divines, both of which disappointed me last year. Rebecca´s kiliing spree, maybe, she´s a psycopath,but the boys hiding their friend´s body just not to be caught pulling a prank in the theatre? It's over fifteen years since I read the first in the St Oswald's series; Gentlemen and Players and five years since I read the follow up; Different Class. However, I particularly enjoyed writing Rebecca because she is a rare example of a middle-aged woman protagonist in fiction, with all the nuance that entails. The story unfolds as they reveal their stories to each other and the reader is drawn deep into the complex events of the past.

Both are haunted, Becky by the ghostly form of her missing brother Conrad, her aged five memories seem to make little sense while Roy is haunted by Eric Scoones, one time friend whose memory is seriously tainted.It was a perfectly paced, pitch perfect blend of mystery and academia that captivated me from the prologue through to the epilogue. The “narrow door” of the title is a nod both to ALICE IN WONDERLAND and to the title of GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS (the inscription on the gates of Lords cricket ground), and the class division it portrays. When on the first day of term, Straitley’s ‘Brodie Boys’ (who now include Benedicta Wild, or ‘Ben’ as she prefers to be known and with the pronoun ‘he’) arrive at his classroom and tell him they think they have found a dead body on the site of the half-finished building site of the new Gunderson Building, Straitley thinks it could just be a practical joke - his ‘Brodie Boys’ are known for their jokes - but when he visits the site himself, he feels his pupils might be right. This actually didn’t matter that I hadn’t read either of the previous books, I quite happily read this as a standalone. As Rebecca tells these stories of her childhood, the birth of her daughter at aged 16, finding husband Dominic when her daughter was six years old and then becoming a teacher at King Henry's, the very school her brother attended when he went missing, we discover that she may know something regarding his disappearance.

Straitley’s discovery of Eric’s secret life – a man he has known since childhood, and whom he thinks he knows – shakes him so profoundly that he allows himself to be manipulated into concealing a murder. I know it’s only the first week of January, but I can confidently say that this novel will appear on my list of favorites for the year.When I first began to read, about a week ago, I quickly realised that I needed to go back to the previous instalment of this intriguing series: Different Class. The various experiences that Ms Buckfast underwent during her teens and twenties simply failed my verisimilitude test, and I found the credibility gap simply too wide. To dispense with the patriarchy of the old guard that she herself has been subject to whilst a teacher at nearby King Henry’s Grammar School and she has a tale to tell.

You know the books that keep you hooked enough to keep reading even when you’re not necessarily enjoying them? However, whilst I enjoyed the powerful feminist vibes peppered throughout, the story itself was slow and tiresome. Her hobbies are listed in Who's Who as 'mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion of the system'. She tells her tale in instalments as a delaying tactic, and he, unbeknown to her, records it in a diary.Several people are dispatched during the course of the story for reasons that I still don't fully understand although I won't spoil the surprise by saying more.