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A Schooling in Murder
England, May 1945
Monkshill Park School for Girls seems a world away from the violence that engulfed Europe during World War II. Yet its lonely, decaying grounds have witnessed a murder.
Annabel Warnock, a teacher with a secretive past, left for the holidays and never came back. Both teachers and girls assume she simply walked out, but the truth is quite different. Her body tumbled from the Maiden’s Leap, a viewpoint on the clifftop Gothic Walk, and was washed out to sea.
But Annabel herself is still trapped at Monkshill, unable to move on. As she haunts the grounds and school, she discovers a hidden world – students, staff and servants are riven with deadly rivalries and dangerous tensions.
And one of them is her killer…
Monkshill Park School for Girls seems a world away from the violence that engulfed Europe during World War II. Yet its lonely, decaying grounds have witnessed a murder.
Annabel Warnock, a teacher with a secretive past, left for the holidays and never came back. Both teachers and girls assume she simply walked out, but the truth is quite different. Her body tumbled from the Maiden’s Leap, a viewpoint on the clifftop Gothic Walk, and was washed out to sea.
But Annabel herself is still trapped at Monkshill, unable to move on. As she haunts the grounds and school, she discovers a hidden world – students, staff and servants are riven with deadly rivalries and dangerous tensions.
And one of them is her killer…
384 pages, Hardcover
First published June 5, 2025
116 people are currently reading
863 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Taylor
306 books57 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
June 11, 2025
I loved Andrew Taylor’s Marwood & Lovett series and was so looking forward to reading this. So many reviews of this book seem to start that way with the reader then giving it a glowing review. Not me, I’m afraid. I think it’s terrible.
Annabel has been murdered, though only posted missing, but her ghost is floating around the school where she taught. She manages to communicate with her replacement to an extent and tries to help him to uncover her murderer. So it’s basically a murder mystery with a supernatural bent. There is no suspense though and the action is so slow. We’re given so much superfluous information about the running of the school that it just becomes tedious. I guessed who the murderer was within the first few chapters so it seemed to take a lifetime (no pun intended) to reach the denouement by which time I could have cared less.
It disappoints me that I’m so disappointed in this as I’ve admired this author’s other work. I found it very unsettling that a male author would have a lesbian as his central character and the book’s narrator. A male author alluding to lesbian sex in the first person just made me feel a bit icky.
I’m hoping this a one off, ill-judged novel and will give Taylor another chance. I appreciate that the book has a lot of glowing reviews but I just can’t follow suit. With thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for a review copy.
Annabel has been murdered, though only posted missing, but her ghost is floating around the school where she taught. She manages to communicate with her replacement to an extent and tries to help him to uncover her murderer. So it’s basically a murder mystery with a supernatural bent. There is no suspense though and the action is so slow. We’re given so much superfluous information about the running of the school that it just becomes tedious. I guessed who the murderer was within the first few chapters so it seemed to take a lifetime (no pun intended) to reach the denouement by which time I could have cared less.
It disappoints me that I’m so disappointed in this as I’ve admired this author’s other work. I found it very unsettling that a male author would have a lesbian as his central character and the book’s narrator. A male author alluding to lesbian sex in the first person just made me feel a bit icky.
I’m hoping this a one off, ill-judged novel and will give Taylor another chance. I appreciate that the book has a lot of glowing reviews but I just can’t follow suit. With thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for a review copy.
August 5, 2025
interesting novel about the death of a schoolteacher at a private school in 1945 and uses a mixture of supernatural and a crime thriller. enjoyed some parts of this book.
April 22, 2025
Well, this was a brilliant read! I rarely like a first-person narrative, but this book had me hooked from the start.
Miss Warnock is missing. She's upped sticks and left Monkshill School without a mistress, but what the school doesn't know is that Miss Warnock is dead, pushed from The Gothick Walk to her doom....
Annabel / Miss Warnock's ghost, though, remains at Monkshill, and she guides us around the school, introducing us to the characters and discovers not all is as it seems in this dilapidated country estate.
Nobody can hear her, she can't tell people what happened to her! Until a new teacher arrives, and then the game is afoot, but there are more mysteries than Annabels murder to solve...
A very clever country house mystery that has a supernatural spin added to it by a very clever author (who seems able to turn his hand to any genre)
A brilliant update on the period classic country house mystery!
Also, in true Golden Age Crime books, we are treated to a delightful map of the estate at the start of the book! It's an absolute winner for me!!
Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for my advance copy! I loved this.
Miss Warnock is missing. She's upped sticks and left Monkshill School without a mistress, but what the school doesn't know is that Miss Warnock is dead, pushed from The Gothick Walk to her doom....
Annabel / Miss Warnock's ghost, though, remains at Monkshill, and she guides us around the school, introducing us to the characters and discovers not all is as it seems in this dilapidated country estate.
Nobody can hear her, she can't tell people what happened to her! Until a new teacher arrives, and then the game is afoot, but there are more mysteries than Annabels murder to solve...
A very clever country house mystery that has a supernatural spin added to it by a very clever author (who seems able to turn his hand to any genre)
A brilliant update on the period classic country house mystery!
Also, in true Golden Age Crime books, we are treated to a delightful map of the estate at the start of the book! It's an absolute winner for me!!
Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Collins, for my advance copy! I loved this.
June 4, 2025
I’m always impressed when an author can surprise me and/or write a unique plot that gives me pause; new-to-me author, Andrew Taylor, did both.
When one of their own is murdered, the Monkshill Park School for Girls becomes the center of a murder investigation. Teacher Annabel Warnock never returned from her holidays and the staff and students have conflicting ideas about what really happened.
I was immediately pulled in with the Gothic setting; it really is essential to this unique story! I can’t tell you more except caution you to doubt everything. You’ll get swept up in a stellar story with ghosts, owls, and a killer that evades detection or identification.
I’ve enjoyed Gothic mysteries, murder mysteries and unreliable narrators before, but I’ve never read a book where the victim, the narrator and the detective were all the same person! Taylor pulls this off and leaves readers gobsmacked.
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
When one of their own is murdered, the Monkshill Park School for Girls becomes the center of a murder investigation. Teacher Annabel Warnock never returned from her holidays and the staff and students have conflicting ideas about what really happened.
I was immediately pulled in with the Gothic setting; it really is essential to this unique story! I can’t tell you more except caution you to doubt everything. You’ll get swept up in a stellar story with ghosts, owls, and a killer that evades detection or identification.
I’ve enjoyed Gothic mysteries, murder mysteries and unreliable narrators before, but I’ve never read a book where the victim, the narrator and the detective were all the same person! Taylor pulls this off and leaves readers gobsmacked.
I was gifted this copy and was under no obligation to provide a review.
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August 8, 2025IN A NUTSHELL
The premise for this book hooked my imagination. The novel itself sent my imagination to sleep.
A novel offering me a ghost story wrapped around a murder mystery with Dark Academia undertones in a 1940s England historical setting, how could I not enjoy that?
The answer turned out to be: when the pace is slow and the tension so absent that you lose interest.
I set this aside at 26% even though the writing and the narration were both good, because the story wasn't working for me.
The main character was hard to like and was, by necessity, passive (being dead will do that to you). There was no tension and not much by way of pathos or passion. There was a strong sense of how dreary, grubby, small-minded and soul-destroying the school was, but that wasn't enough to keep me engaged. In the absence of other things, it just made the reading experience depressing.
The premise for this book hooked my imagination. The novel itself sent my imagination to sleep.
A novel offering me a ghost story wrapped around a murder mystery with Dark Academia undertones in a 1940s England historical setting, how could I not enjoy that?
The answer turned out to be: when the pace is slow and the tension so absent that you lose interest.
I set this aside at 26% even though the writing and the narration were both good, because the story wasn't working for me.
The main character was hard to like and was, by necessity, passive (being dead will do that to you). There was no tension and not much by way of pathos or passion. There was a strong sense of how dreary, grubby, small-minded and soul-destroying the school was, but that wasn't enough to keep me engaged. In the absence of other things, it just made the reading experience depressing.
December 29, 2025
4.25 stars. It’s hard to go wrong with Andrew Taylor. He writes beautifully and does HF so well. I’ve never had him put a word wrong that pulls me out of a story anachronistically. And his settings and characterization are top-notch.
I was enjoying this book SO much for about the first half or so, and then it started to feel as though it perhaps needed a bit of editing. It could have been stronger if perhaps 20 or so pages were cut from the second half. That being said, the killer was certainly a surprise and I really enjoyed the ghost story aspect of this.
Our POV character was murdered before the story began, but she doesn’t know who killed her (the murderer was behind her) or why. Because her body was not found, her ‘disappearance’ was briefly investigated, but when nothing turned up, it was assumed she simply went on holiday and never returned. She has to enlist the help of someone at the girls’ boarding school where she last worked in order to solve her own murder.
The audio performance was very well done, a full five stars for it, and I’ll be seeking out more books narrated by Nathalie Buscombe.
If you want to get lost in another time and place, usually with some type of murder or crime thrown in, this author is a good one to seek out.
I was enjoying this book SO much for about the first half or so, and then it started to feel as though it perhaps needed a bit of editing. It could have been stronger if perhaps 20 or so pages were cut from the second half. That being said, the killer was certainly a surprise and I really enjoyed the ghost story aspect of this.
Our POV character was murdered before the story began, but she doesn’t know who killed her (the murderer was behind her) or why. Because her body was not found, her ‘disappearance’ was briefly investigated, but when nothing turned up, it was assumed she simply went on holiday and never returned. She has to enlist the help of someone at the girls’ boarding school where she last worked in order to solve her own murder.
The audio performance was very well done, a full five stars for it, and I’ll be seeking out more books narrated by Nathalie Buscombe.
If you want to get lost in another time and place, usually with some type of murder or crime thrown in, this author is a good one to seek out.
August 16, 2025
Unfortunately I'm disappointed in this book. I had great expectations when I read the synopsis, but it didn't keep my interest.
The book was dull with too much unecessary descriptions. I guessed the murderer in the first couple chapters.
The book jacket is awesome though and great synopsis well written to pick your curiosity.
The book was dull with too much unecessary descriptions. I guessed the murderer in the first couple chapters.
The book jacket is awesome though and great synopsis well written to pick your curiosity.
June 23, 2025
I love Andrew Taylor’s books and over the last few years I’ve been enjoying his Marwood and Lovett series, set in the 17th century in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. His new novel, A Schooling in Murder, is not part of the series and leaves that setting behind entirely, taking us instead to the 1940s and a girls’ school near the border of England and Wales.
The novel has a very unusual narrator and when I sat down to write this review I wondered if it would be possible to avoid giving away too much about her. However, the publisher’s own blurb reveals her secret, as do most of the other reviews I’ve seen (and to be fair, she tells us herself in the first chapter anyway): Annabel Warnock is a ghost. In life, she was a teacher at Monkshill Park School for Girls, until being pushed into the river from the Maiden’s Leap, a clifftop viewing point on the Gothick Walk, part of the school grounds. Who pushed her? Annabel doesn’t know, but she’s determined to find out.
As a ghost, Annabel is able to move freely around Monkshill Park – although places she never visited while alive are inaccessible to her – but she can’t be seen or heard by anyone else. This naturally makes investigating her murder very difficult, especially as her colleagues don’t even know she’s dead since her body was never washed up. It seems that the only person who can help is Alec Shaw, Annabel’s replacement – referred to simply as a ‘Visiting Tutor’ to appease parents worried about the school employing a man to teach their girls. Although she can’t speak directly to Alec, Annabel finds a very imaginative way to communicate with him, which was one of my favourite aspects of the book!
As well as the mystery element of the book, we also learn a lot about life in a 1940s girls’ boarding school. Andrew Taylor does a good job of portraying the rivalries and complex relationships that form when groups of teenage girls – and groups of teachers – are living together in a close-knit community. There are occasional references to the war, which is in its closing stages as the book begins in May 1945, but Monkshill Park feels largely sheltered from the outside world, so although the war touches the lives of the characters in various ways it doesn’t form a big part of the story.
The descriptions of the school and its landscape are very detailed, so I was interested to read in Taylor’s author’s note that he based it on Piercefield, a now ruined house and estate near Chepstow in Wales, and that in its fictional guise of Monkshill Park it also formed the setting for his earlier novel, The American Boy. I should have remembered that as The American Boy is my favourite of all the Andrew Taylor books I’ve read!
Although it was interesting to watch a victim trying to solve their own murder, I felt that there was a distance between the characters and the reader, which I suppose is inevitable when your narrator can only watch and observe rather than interact directly with the people around her. Maybe because we’re only seeing them from Annabel’s unique perspective, most of the characters also seem particularly unpleasant! Possibly for these reasons, I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as some of Taylor’s other books, but it was imaginative and different and I’m looking forward to whatever he writes next.
The novel has a very unusual narrator and when I sat down to write this review I wondered if it would be possible to avoid giving away too much about her. However, the publisher’s own blurb reveals her secret, as do most of the other reviews I’ve seen (and to be fair, she tells us herself in the first chapter anyway): Annabel Warnock is a ghost. In life, she was a teacher at Monkshill Park School for Girls, until being pushed into the river from the Maiden’s Leap, a clifftop viewing point on the Gothick Walk, part of the school grounds. Who pushed her? Annabel doesn’t know, but she’s determined to find out.
As a ghost, Annabel is able to move freely around Monkshill Park – although places she never visited while alive are inaccessible to her – but she can’t be seen or heard by anyone else. This naturally makes investigating her murder very difficult, especially as her colleagues don’t even know she’s dead since her body was never washed up. It seems that the only person who can help is Alec Shaw, Annabel’s replacement – referred to simply as a ‘Visiting Tutor’ to appease parents worried about the school employing a man to teach their girls. Although she can’t speak directly to Alec, Annabel finds a very imaginative way to communicate with him, which was one of my favourite aspects of the book!
As well as the mystery element of the book, we also learn a lot about life in a 1940s girls’ boarding school. Andrew Taylor does a good job of portraying the rivalries and complex relationships that form when groups of teenage girls – and groups of teachers – are living together in a close-knit community. There are occasional references to the war, which is in its closing stages as the book begins in May 1945, but Monkshill Park feels largely sheltered from the outside world, so although the war touches the lives of the characters in various ways it doesn’t form a big part of the story.
The descriptions of the school and its landscape are very detailed, so I was interested to read in Taylor’s author’s note that he based it on Piercefield, a now ruined house and estate near Chepstow in Wales, and that in its fictional guise of Monkshill Park it also formed the setting for his earlier novel, The American Boy. I should have remembered that as The American Boy is my favourite of all the Andrew Taylor books I’ve read!
Although it was interesting to watch a victim trying to solve their own murder, I felt that there was a distance between the characters and the reader, which I suppose is inevitable when your narrator can only watch and observe rather than interact directly with the people around her. Maybe because we’re only seeing them from Annabel’s unique perspective, most of the characters also seem particularly unpleasant! Possibly for these reasons, I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as some of Taylor’s other books, but it was imaginative and different and I’m looking forward to whatever he writes next.
dnf
June 30, 2025I wasn’t able to get through this. The pacing was too slow for me and it wasn’t keeping me interested. There was a lot of background detail and information which felt quite irrelevant and it took centre focus over the murder plot.
The concept is definitely interesting with it being a murder mystery told from the perspective of the dead victim who is now a ghost following other characters around but i believe it failed in execution.
Thank you Rachel Quin Marketing and Hemlock Press for the chance to read this proof I appreciate the opportunity.
The concept is definitely interesting with it being a murder mystery told from the perspective of the dead victim who is now a ghost following other characters around but i believe it failed in execution.
Thank you Rachel Quin Marketing and Hemlock Press for the chance to read this proof I appreciate the opportunity.
July 25, 2025
This was such a novel story and I was intrigued and recruited right from the start. I mean, the story told in the POV of the ghost of the woman who had been murdered? and no one knew she was murdered? And she’s trying to find out who killed her? Yes please.
And the whole thing was set in the background of wartime which sets a whole new deeper level of atmosphere.
The audiobook was easy to get lost in (greatly narrated) and the story entertaining. So I really had no problem getting into this book at all. Enjoyable audiobook and a great companion to the gym!
And the whole thing was set in the background of wartime which sets a whole new deeper level of atmosphere.
The audiobook was easy to get lost in (greatly narrated) and the story entertaining. So I really had no problem getting into this book at all. Enjoyable audiobook and a great companion to the gym!
June 4, 2025
A slow start, but A Schooling in Murder offers an intriguing story. Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review it prior to publication.
Our narrator introduces us to the comings and goings at Monkshill School. Our narrator is Miss Annabel Warnock, a former teacher at the school who has gone missing. We know she has been murdered, and her ghost is trying to find out who killed her.
The setting of the school is suitably remote and gloomy. Plenty of woodland and a remote lake. There’s talk of a hidden walk in the woods, and a suggestion that there may be someone living in the woods.
Set against the backdrop of war this was very much a book that felt cut off from time. The girls go about their business but we never really sense the outside world. The claustrophobic setting of the school lends itself well to the idea of the mystery.
Through Warnock’s observations we are able to piece together details about the lives of those at the school. We see the secrets they are keen to keep hidden, and we come to see how those secrets could result in someone needing to go to extremes lengths to keep them hidden. Eventually we learn who killed Warnock and why.
Our narrator introduces us to the comings and goings at Monkshill School. Our narrator is Miss Annabel Warnock, a former teacher at the school who has gone missing. We know she has been murdered, and her ghost is trying to find out who killed her.
The setting of the school is suitably remote and gloomy. Plenty of woodland and a remote lake. There’s talk of a hidden walk in the woods, and a suggestion that there may be someone living in the woods.
Set against the backdrop of war this was very much a book that felt cut off from time. The girls go about their business but we never really sense the outside world. The claustrophobic setting of the school lends itself well to the idea of the mystery.
Through Warnock’s observations we are able to piece together details about the lives of those at the school. We see the secrets they are keen to keep hidden, and we come to see how those secrets could result in someone needing to go to extremes lengths to keep them hidden. Eventually we learn who killed Warnock and why.
April 17, 2025
I really tried with this book. I kept going back to it and trying again, but it just didn't hold my attention for more than a few minutes at a time, so at 52%, I had to give in and give up.
It's a tale that by the premise had me really interested, but when reading, I found the mundane goings on and the life of the staff and students at the school just overly boring.
Narrated by the ghost of murdered teacher Miss Annabelle Warnock, the story is based around finding out who killed her. Lots of suspicions, lots of suspects, lots of guesswork...
Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. While I could have persevered, life is way too short to be reading books that don't bring me joy!
Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.
It's a tale that by the premise had me really interested, but when reading, I found the mundane goings on and the life of the staff and students at the school just overly boring.
Narrated by the ghost of murdered teacher Miss Annabelle Warnock, the story is based around finding out who killed her. Lots of suspicions, lots of suspects, lots of guesswork...
Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. While I could have persevered, life is way too short to be reading books that don't bring me joy!
Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.
April 26, 2025
What attracted me to this novel was the reference to a boarding school set in England during WW2. It was described as a mystery thriller, but the search for the killer is the deceased herself making it a haunting novel. The narrative comes from the ghost herself, and her interactions with the living. There was little to keep me enthralled and regrettably I gave up reading halfway through as it just didn’t excite me. Reading should be a source of enjoyment, not a chore.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.
April 26, 2025
An original way of writing a thriller with the ghost of the murdered "leading" the way to find her murderer. It was well done, and definitely made sense. However, whereas I loved all his other novels, this book has not thrilled me as much as the other, because of the ghost being a main character. But that's only my opinion.
I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley and I have voluntarily written an honest review.
I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley and I have voluntarily written an honest review.
June 15, 2025
As the war ends, Monkshill Park is facing an uncertain future. One of the teachers at this 'fourth-rate' girls' boarding school has disappeared, only she hasn't, she's been murdered and now her spirit is unable to rest until she finds out what has happened. Annabel was a good teacher but had left her previous job under a cloud however, at Monkshill Park she thought she'd found love and a purpose until she was killed. As secrets come to light, Annabel tries to solve her own murder.
Writing a precise of the plot of this book makes it sound completely ridiculous, a mash-up between a ghost story and a 'Golden-Age' murder mystery. However ,in the hands of Taylor it becomes a thing of wonder. The ghost element is just a clever vehicle for the sleuthing and the characters are diverse and complex in their motives. It's sad, intriguing and beautifully put together.
Writing a precise of the plot of this book makes it sound completely ridiculous, a mash-up between a ghost story and a 'Golden-Age' murder mystery. However ,in the hands of Taylor it becomes a thing of wonder. The ghost element is just a clever vehicle for the sleuthing and the characters are diverse and complex in their motives. It's sad, intriguing and beautifully put together.
July 16, 2025
Annabel is haunting the school where she was murdered. Except no-one knows she's dead, they think she left her job suddenly. Her replacement Alec is the only person she can communicate with and it takes him a long time to realise he is dealing with a ghost. Now that Annabel can learn some of the secrets of the girl's boarding school inhabitants can she find out why she was murdered?
This murder mystery is definitely helped by having the murder victim as the narrator but it's also frustrating - the repeated explanation of 'I couldn't go there as I hadn't when I was alive', Annabel also often arrives just after something has happened and sets up several suspects simply because they are secretive, vicious teenage girls. Not a gripping crime novel but a nice interlude.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.
This murder mystery is definitely helped by having the murder victim as the narrator but it's also frustrating - the repeated explanation of 'I couldn't go there as I hadn't when I was alive', Annabel also often arrives just after something has happened and sets up several suspects simply because they are secretive, vicious teenage girls. Not a gripping crime novel but a nice interlude.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.
October 3, 2025
If I had to sum up this book in one word, it would be slow. The book creeps along without every getting intense or scary or anything beyond mildly interesting. The mystery story being written in the story was slammed as trite and unimaginative, but it was probably one of the more clever elements of this book that plays on all the stereotypes for its characters.
There were lots of attempts to create red herrings, but real red herrings are supposed to mislead you about the murder, but as no one but the murderer knew that a murder had taken place, they didn't do that. Not for the reader either.
Too many minor plot lines, pretty obvious hints as to who the murderer was (I figured it out pretty early just by thinking who is the most unlikely one and voila!), too many damaged people, it was almost like a bunch of short stories mashed together.
A shame, because I thought the premise was pretty interesting.
There were lots of attempts to create red herrings, but real red herrings are supposed to mislead you about the murder, but as no one but the murderer knew that a murder had taken place, they didn't do that. Not for the reader either.
Too many minor plot lines, pretty obvious hints as to who the murderer was (I figured it out pretty early just by thinking who is the most unlikely one and voila!), too many damaged people, it was almost like a bunch of short stories mashed together.
A shame, because I thought the premise was pretty interesting.
July 10, 2025
A Schooling in Murder was a first book I read by the author. I was intrigued by the idea and enjoyed the first few chapters. I liked the writing style, the moody atmosphere and the characters seemed interesting. However, as the story progressed, my interest started to wane. The plot moved at a frustratingly slow pace, and mostly seemed to consist of mundane details that didn’t add much to the story. The endless, overly detailed descriptions of the woods—while perhaps intended to build atmosphere—started to feel repetitive. By 50% I found myself struggling to stay engaged and decided to stop reading as I realised I am not even interested enough to find out who the murderer was.
December 11, 2025
Unusual but enjoyable
June 17, 2025
I just couldn`t get into this novel, even though I tried very hard and kept assuming It would become more gripping.
Although not a great fan of novels written in the first person, I have nevertheless enjoyed a few. However, 'A Schooling in Murder` was not to be added to that list.
The concept of the main character trying to uncover the details of her own murder sounded intriguing. Taylor successfully uses this to increase the emotional appeal but I found the writing style lacked fluidity and there was not enough clue-finding and problem-solving for me personally.
This may appeal to those who want an easy read without involved detective work but unfortunately is not to my liking.
Although not a great fan of novels written in the first person, I have nevertheless enjoyed a few. However, 'A Schooling in Murder` was not to be added to that list.
The concept of the main character trying to uncover the details of her own murder sounded intriguing. Taylor successfully uses this to increase the emotional appeal but I found the writing style lacked fluidity and there was not enough clue-finding and problem-solving for me personally.
This may appeal to those who want an easy read without involved detective work but unfortunately is not to my liking.
May 1, 2025
For many years I have been a great fan of Andrew Taylor's historical novels set in the seventeenth century, but I also admire his mysteries set in the twentieth century - and this is one of his best.
With an ever increasing abundance of new crime novels coming out it must be almost impossible for writers to come up with anything truly original or innovative - but this is sure proof that it can still be done, and in this case, done extremely well.
Monkshill, a girls boarding school, is a rather dark version of St Trinian's, with some rather unpleasant teachers and many dysfunctional kids. The author captures the austerity of Britain in the final months of WW2 with his trademark aplomb.
The unusual status of the narrator is a particularly clever literary device.
With an ever increasing abundance of new crime novels coming out it must be almost impossible for writers to come up with anything truly original or innovative - but this is sure proof that it can still be done, and in this case, done extremely well.
Monkshill, a girls boarding school, is a rather dark version of St Trinian's, with some rather unpleasant teachers and many dysfunctional kids. The author captures the austerity of Britain in the final months of WW2 with his trademark aplomb.
The unusual status of the narrator is a particularly clever literary device.
June 20, 2025
A measured and thoughtful take on the classic whodunnit.
Set brilliantly in a struggling girls’ boarding school just after the World War II. At time of uncertainty, financial struggles and the conflict in the Far East still to be resolved.
A wonderful balance of adults and children. The teachers and pupils and those working in auxiliary services to allow the establishment to just keep its balance sheet in the black.
The interesting element to story is that a murder has happened. It is beyond the usual murder mystery as the victim is the narrator of the text. A ghost walking the grounds of the school and the places she had been in life. Now trying to find a means to communicate with the living and solve her murder.
I loved the location. The closed community and therefore limited number of suspects. There are some clever character observations and we quickly learn there are two-sides to most of the people involved. With secrets, boredom, gossiping and a sense of menace lingering around the place. All is not well and no-one even our missing corpse is whom they seem.
I loved the range of issues and topics covered. The growing need for young women to be educated. The difficulty to throw off the uncertainty of war. The displaced and missing. A fear as much as hope in the future. The constant struggle to maintain the reputation of the school, boost income, pay bills and meet parental expectations.
I particularly liked the first approach in this genre and the juxtaposition of a ghost story within a closed community closer to period saga than the postwar promise. It throws up many societal issues as well, both in terms of relationships and lengths needed to keep secrets where half truths, speculation or discovery could destroy reputations.
A pleasant book to lose yourself in and discover those things we should value and embrace.
Set brilliantly in a struggling girls’ boarding school just after the World War II. At time of uncertainty, financial struggles and the conflict in the Far East still to be resolved.
A wonderful balance of adults and children. The teachers and pupils and those working in auxiliary services to allow the establishment to just keep its balance sheet in the black.
The interesting element to story is that a murder has happened. It is beyond the usual murder mystery as the victim is the narrator of the text. A ghost walking the grounds of the school and the places she had been in life. Now trying to find a means to communicate with the living and solve her murder.
I loved the location. The closed community and therefore limited number of suspects. There are some clever character observations and we quickly learn there are two-sides to most of the people involved. With secrets, boredom, gossiping and a sense of menace lingering around the place. All is not well and no-one even our missing corpse is whom they seem.
I loved the range of issues and topics covered. The growing need for young women to be educated. The difficulty to throw off the uncertainty of war. The displaced and missing. A fear as much as hope in the future. The constant struggle to maintain the reputation of the school, boost income, pay bills and meet parental expectations.
I particularly liked the first approach in this genre and the juxtaposition of a ghost story within a closed community closer to period saga than the postwar promise. It throws up many societal issues as well, both in terms of relationships and lengths needed to keep secrets where half truths, speculation or discovery could destroy reputations.
A pleasant book to lose yourself in and discover those things we should value and embrace.
June 18, 2025
It's 1945. Monkshill Park School for Girls is one of those establishments that appeals to the snobbish while treating the girls as unpaid skivvies and worse than children in an orphanage (although TBH that might just be the food in the 1940s in England LOL).
The book is narrated by Annabel Warnock, a teacher at the school who went away on holiday and never returned. Her fellow teachers assume she just left but we and Annabel know she didn't leave, she was murdered (by person(s) unknown), pushed over a cliff, and her body has been swept down river and out to sea.
For some unknown reason, Annabel can move about freely within the school grounds IF she had visited that place before her death, but if she hadn't previously entered a room, she can't now.
The school is a Petrie dish, all those female hormones inclose proximity. There are same sex relationships, conducted in secret for fear of being sacked, bullying by some girls, blackmail, poison pen letters, theft, intimidation, you name it.
Alec Shaw, the first male ever male teacher at the school, has come as a substitute teacher. Annabel discovers that he is the only person she can communicate with as she can 'hijack' his typing when he is typing his fledgling detective story. After a number of false starts she manages to convince him that she is not a figment of her subconscious, and enlists him in her search for her murderer. But the list of suspects is long. Could it be the surly gardener/former poacher who goes by the charming nickname 'Tosser'? What about the surly young nephew of the school cook Stephen who Annabel was trying to get into a local boys' grammar school? What about the local deserter Sam Crisp, son of the school cleaner? Could it be one of the school bullies Venetia and Rosemary? Could it be someone from Annabel's past - she had impressive qualifications but was forced to take the job at Monkshill after an unfortunate incident at her school?
I have loved Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London series so when I saw this new historical mystery I jumped at the chance to request an ARC. All I can say is 'huh?'. I don't really get this and I am left with a vague suspicion that it is misogynistic - although thinking about it the only character of any note who comes across as even halfway decent is Alec Shaw - and he has spent time in prison for embezzlement - so maybe it is just a book filled with unlikeable characters. Even characters who were supposedly friends turn out not to be.
I turned to my husband when I was 85% through this book on my Kindle and said 'I don't understand the point of this book' and I have to say after finishing it I am still baffled. I think the idea of having a 'ghost' able to overhear other peoples' discussions and/or read private correspondence felt too omnipotent and then this had to be reined back with the odd rule that she couldn't visit somewhere she hadn't before, and couldn't leave the school grounds. Also, why was she a ghost but there weren't any others drifting around?
Also, I thought the murderer's identity was fairly obvious, despite the plethora of red herrings, I just thought the motive was a bit left field.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
The book is narrated by Annabel Warnock, a teacher at the school who went away on holiday and never returned. Her fellow teachers assume she just left but we and Annabel know she didn't leave, she was murdered (by person(s) unknown), pushed over a cliff, and her body has been swept down river and out to sea.
For some unknown reason, Annabel can move about freely within the school grounds IF she had visited that place before her death, but if she hadn't previously entered a room, she can't now.
The school is a Petrie dish, all those female hormones inclose proximity. There are same sex relationships, conducted in secret for fear of being sacked, bullying by some girls, blackmail, poison pen letters, theft, intimidation, you name it.
Alec Shaw, the first male ever male teacher at the school, has come as a substitute teacher. Annabel discovers that he is the only person she can communicate with as she can 'hijack' his typing when he is typing his fledgling detective story. After a number of false starts she manages to convince him that she is not a figment of her subconscious, and enlists him in her search for her murderer. But the list of suspects is long. Could it be the surly gardener/former poacher who goes by the charming nickname 'Tosser'? What about the surly young nephew of the school cook Stephen who Annabel was trying to get into a local boys' grammar school? What about the local deserter Sam Crisp, son of the school cleaner? Could it be one of the school bullies Venetia and Rosemary? Could it be someone from Annabel's past - she had impressive qualifications but was forced to take the job at Monkshill after an unfortunate incident at her school?
I have loved Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London series so when I saw this new historical mystery I jumped at the chance to request an ARC. All I can say is 'huh?'. I don't really get this and I am left with a vague suspicion that it is misogynistic - although thinking about it the only character of any note who comes across as even halfway decent is Alec Shaw - and he has spent time in prison for embezzlement - so maybe it is just a book filled with unlikeable characters. Even characters who were supposedly friends turn out not to be.
I turned to my husband when I was 85% through this book on my Kindle and said 'I don't understand the point of this book' and I have to say after finishing it I am still baffled. I think the idea of having a 'ghost' able to overhear other peoples' discussions and/or read private correspondence felt too omnipotent and then this had to be reined back with the odd rule that she couldn't visit somewhere she hadn't before, and couldn't leave the school grounds. Also, why was she a ghost but there weren't any others drifting around?
Also, I thought the murderer's identity was fairly obvious, despite the plethora of red herrings, I just thought the motive was a bit left field.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
August 5, 2025
Though I enjoyed The Ashes of London, I’d quite burned out(!} on Taylor’s Great Fire series. The problem is style. As a former Restoration literature scholar, I find it hard to get through two pages of dialogue without wincing. But most of all, I’ve missed the spooky stuff, as in Broken Voices and The Leper House. But now we have not only a narrator from beyond the grave (actually her body was washed out to sea), but a school story set in 1945. In Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall, an interviewer for the academic employment agency Church and Gargoyle (actually Gabbatas and Thring) advises Paul Pennyfeather, ‘We class schools, you see, into four grades. Leading School, First-rate School, Good School, and School. Frankly, School is pretty bad.’ In A Schooling for Murder, Monkshill Park is, most definitely, a School. Another quotation from the same source is most apropos as well, ‘I have been in the scholastic profession long enough to know that nobody enters it unless he has some very good reason which he is anxious to conceal’—most definitely true of Taylor’s cast of characters here.
Those bores who can stomach only realistic fiction should be reminded that vengeful ghosts seeking retribution on their killers are essential to the greatest ancient and modern tragedies. Here it is Miss Annabel Warnock BA, who was pushed off the cliff at the appropriately named Maiden’s Leap by a person unknown, who finds her contact amongst the living in the new tutor Alec Shaw, through the unusual medium(!) of his typewriter, interpolating her comments into a detective story he is composing. We also have a schoolgirl enthralled with detective fiction, who sets out to solve the mystery of Miss Warnock’s disappearance and who finds Dorothy Sayers’ Busman’s Honeymoon ‘full of lovey-dovey stuff that doesn’t make any sense’. And devotees of the classic English mystery story will experience glimpses of Gaudy Night and The Nine Tailors too. Like them, the solution depends on knowing hidden backstories. I intuited the identity of the villain from my experience of mystery stories, that were I writing this book, that character would be my culprit. But in those classics of Dorothy Sayers, Schooling in Murder is scarcely a puzzle the astute reader is expected to solve, but an opportunity to immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the so-English mystery and school story at its apogee. (I can almost imagine this novel as a green and white Penguin at a railway newsagent’s stall.) If that is your world too, you’ll love this one.
Those bores who can stomach only realistic fiction should be reminded that vengeful ghosts seeking retribution on their killers are essential to the greatest ancient and modern tragedies. Here it is Miss Annabel Warnock BA, who was pushed off the cliff at the appropriately named Maiden’s Leap by a person unknown, who finds her contact amongst the living in the new tutor Alec Shaw, through the unusual medium(!) of his typewriter, interpolating her comments into a detective story he is composing. We also have a schoolgirl enthralled with detective fiction, who sets out to solve the mystery of Miss Warnock’s disappearance and who finds Dorothy Sayers’ Busman’s Honeymoon ‘full of lovey-dovey stuff that doesn’t make any sense’. And devotees of the classic English mystery story will experience glimpses of Gaudy Night and The Nine Tailors too. Like them, the solution depends on knowing hidden backstories. I intuited the identity of the villain from my experience of mystery stories, that were I writing this book, that character would be my culprit. But in those classics of Dorothy Sayers, Schooling in Murder is scarcely a puzzle the astute reader is expected to solve, but an opportunity to immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the so-English mystery and school story at its apogee. (I can almost imagine this novel as a green and white Penguin at a railway newsagent’s stall.) If that is your world too, you’ll love this one.
June 22, 2025
Teacher Annabel Warnock was murdered at Monkshill Park, a boarding school for young girls. But her ghost can still wander around the estate and she discovers she can communicate with her substitute Alec Shaw when he is writing his detective novel. Together, they try to solve Annabel's murder.
I previously enjoyed Taylor's Marwood and Lovett series and was curious for his new standalone book 'A schooling in murder'. Historically, it's set during World War II - the novel opens in May 1945 - but that setting is not heavily developed. It reads like some kind of closed setting detective.
The angle of the victim playing detective herself is original. Annabel has her own secrets - both in at Monkshill, and in her past. As a ghost she can follow each dialogue so we get to know everyone who works and lives at Monkshill, but she can only go to places where she's been in life.
I found this book rather a slow burner with too many unsympathetic characters and an ending that is rather predictable and leaves many other things unanswered. Taylor stages so many red herrings that those storylines are not always finished - what about Venetia for example?
I quickly figured out the killer simply because that person was never brought up as a suspect. I found myself not super eager to read on in this book. Too bad, but I am very much hoping for a new Marwood and Lovett book. It's not that I didn't enjoy this one, but I'll probably soon forget what's it about.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.
Dutch review:
Lerares Annabel Warnock werd vermoord op Monkhill Park, een internaat voor jonge meisjes. Maar haar geest kan rond dwalen op het domein en ze ontdekt dat ze kan communiceren met haar vervanger Alec Shaw wanneer die aan zijn detectiveroman schrijft. Ze proberen samen de moord op te lossen.
Ik genoot al eerder van de Marwood en Lovett serie van Taylor en wou nu dit standalone boek proberen. Historisch gezien speelt het zich af tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog maar die setting is niet fel uitgewerkt. Het leest als een soort gesloten setting detective.
De insteek van de vermoorde die zelf detective speelt is origineel. Maar verder vond ik dit boek nogal een slow burner met teveel onsympathieke personages en een einde dat nogal voorspelbaar is en veel andere dingen onbeantwoord laat. Taylor voert zoveel red herrings op dat die verhaallijnen niet altijd afgewerkt worden.
Ik had de moordenaar al snel door gewoon doordat die net nooit werd opgevoerd als verdachte. Ik merkte dat ik niet super graag verder las in dit boek.
Jammer, maar ik hoop dus erg op een nieuwe Marwood en Lovett.
Bedankt aan Netgalley en de uitgever voor een exemplaar van dit boek in ruil voor mijn eerlijke mening.
I previously enjoyed Taylor's Marwood and Lovett series and was curious for his new standalone book 'A schooling in murder'. Historically, it's set during World War II - the novel opens in May 1945 - but that setting is not heavily developed. It reads like some kind of closed setting detective.
The angle of the victim playing detective herself is original. Annabel has her own secrets - both in at Monkshill, and in her past. As a ghost she can follow each dialogue so we get to know everyone who works and lives at Monkshill, but she can only go to places where she's been in life.
I found this book rather a slow burner with too many unsympathetic characters and an ending that is rather predictable and leaves many other things unanswered. Taylor stages so many red herrings that those storylines are not always finished - what about Venetia for example?
I quickly figured out the killer simply because that person was never brought up as a suspect. I found myself not super eager to read on in this book. Too bad, but I am very much hoping for a new Marwood and Lovett book. It's not that I didn't enjoy this one, but I'll probably soon forget what's it about.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.
Dutch review:
Lerares Annabel Warnock werd vermoord op Monkhill Park, een internaat voor jonge meisjes. Maar haar geest kan rond dwalen op het domein en ze ontdekt dat ze kan communiceren met haar vervanger Alec Shaw wanneer die aan zijn detectiveroman schrijft. Ze proberen samen de moord op te lossen.
Ik genoot al eerder van de Marwood en Lovett serie van Taylor en wou nu dit standalone boek proberen. Historisch gezien speelt het zich af tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog maar die setting is niet fel uitgewerkt. Het leest als een soort gesloten setting detective.
De insteek van de vermoorde die zelf detective speelt is origineel. Maar verder vond ik dit boek nogal een slow burner met teveel onsympathieke personages en een einde dat nogal voorspelbaar is en veel andere dingen onbeantwoord laat. Taylor voert zoveel red herrings op dat die verhaallijnen niet altijd afgewerkt worden.
Ik had de moordenaar al snel door gewoon doordat die net nooit werd opgevoerd als verdachte. Ik merkte dat ik niet super graag verder las in dit boek.
Jammer, maar ik hoop dus erg op een nieuwe Marwood en Lovett.
Bedankt aan Netgalley en de uitgever voor een exemplaar van dit boek in ruil voor mijn eerlijke mening.
July 3, 2025
In ‘A Schooling in Murder’, Andrew Taylor takes the reader to the constraining, wearisome, drab final months of the Second World War. For those boarding girls ensconced in Monkshill Park School, the triumphs of VE day feel inconsequential as they live out their sepia tinted dull lives, barely educated, often bored and rarely happy.
So, when that rarity of rarities, a male teacher, comes to replace the recently departed Annabel Warnock, a School Cert teacher, there is much speculation. Is he a spy? Is it true that he is writing a detective novel? No and yes – and there is certainly more to Alec Shaw BA than meets the eye, not least that he becomes a conduit for Annabel’s concerns and questions.
Narrator Annabel is a ghost; she has been murdered. But by whom? Before dismissing the novel as a piece of nonsense because of this possibly hackneyed storytelling device, hold fast and let Taylor immerse you in a world of snobbery, child neglect (at the very least), surreptitious desire and cruel decisions underneath the supposed respectability of a boarding school for young ladies. As Annabel observes, ‘…I hadn’t realised how the exercise of power ran like a dark vein through every relationship at Monkshill … where there was power, there tended to be cruelty, often all the nastier when it was subtle; it left no visible bruises but festered in the mind, in the heart and in the memory.’
Taylor not only conjures up an entirely credible way of life through his descriptions of boarding school austerity in the 1940s. He also brings us a myriad of characters who are equally plausible, whether they be the aptly named school caretaker, Tosser, or the damaged pupil, Venetia, who is both vicious and vulnerable. Whilst ‘A Schooling in Murder’ will likely be marketed as a ghost story, it is also a thoughtful, nuanced study of prejudice and deprivation and how people are driven to take desperate measures. Recommended!
My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
So, when that rarity of rarities, a male teacher, comes to replace the recently departed Annabel Warnock, a School Cert teacher, there is much speculation. Is he a spy? Is it true that he is writing a detective novel? No and yes – and there is certainly more to Alec Shaw BA than meets the eye, not least that he becomes a conduit for Annabel’s concerns and questions.
Narrator Annabel is a ghost; she has been murdered. But by whom? Before dismissing the novel as a piece of nonsense because of this possibly hackneyed storytelling device, hold fast and let Taylor immerse you in a world of snobbery, child neglect (at the very least), surreptitious desire and cruel decisions underneath the supposed respectability of a boarding school for young ladies. As Annabel observes, ‘…I hadn’t realised how the exercise of power ran like a dark vein through every relationship at Monkshill … where there was power, there tended to be cruelty, often all the nastier when it was subtle; it left no visible bruises but festered in the mind, in the heart and in the memory.’
Taylor not only conjures up an entirely credible way of life through his descriptions of boarding school austerity in the 1940s. He also brings us a myriad of characters who are equally plausible, whether they be the aptly named school caretaker, Tosser, or the damaged pupil, Venetia, who is both vicious and vulnerable. Whilst ‘A Schooling in Murder’ will likely be marketed as a ghost story, it is also a thoughtful, nuanced study of prejudice and deprivation and how people are driven to take desperate measures. Recommended!
My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
June 4, 2025
I really liked the premise of this book — a teacher with a secretive past, who disappears, presumed to have left by her colleagues but who is actually trapped at Monkshill Park School where she was brutally murdered.
The story is set in 1945 at the end of the war in a tight knit community almost exclusively being girls and women. The setting, an old country house, temporarily requisitioned by the army during the war and now an 'exclusive' girls school is well described. But the characters, teachers, girls and staff of different ages and from different backgrounds, although mostly working against the odds are for the most part really unlikeable. Even Annabel Warnock, the heroine of the story and the main sleuth investigating her own demise, is not much liked by the other staff and girls, while the head and deputy, the cleaning lady, the cook and her son and the old man who lives in the grounds are all thoroughly unlikeable. The girls are not much better with rivalries and bullying dominating the school days. Barely anyone comes out smelling of roses and this meant I really didn't care enough about the characters to want to know the outcome.
I also found the first few chapters where the author is establishing the boundaries for Annabel are a bit clunky and her restraints needed were explained several times. The references to books of the time, most of which I've not read became rather annoying as I didn't see the point and the way the one man switched between a pipe and cigarettes confused me.
The story continues as Annabel persuades her replacement teacher, Alec, to investigate and gradually various secrets are exposed and we come to understand how those secrets could lead to decisive action.
Sadly I didn't think the book was as good as the blurb, but it was an interesting take on the usual murder mystery and I'm sure many will enjoy it.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy in return for an honest review.
The story is set in 1945 at the end of the war in a tight knit community almost exclusively being girls and women. The setting, an old country house, temporarily requisitioned by the army during the war and now an 'exclusive' girls school is well described. But the characters, teachers, girls and staff of different ages and from different backgrounds, although mostly working against the odds are for the most part really unlikeable. Even Annabel Warnock, the heroine of the story and the main sleuth investigating her own demise, is not much liked by the other staff and girls, while the head and deputy, the cleaning lady, the cook and her son and the old man who lives in the grounds are all thoroughly unlikeable. The girls are not much better with rivalries and bullying dominating the school days. Barely anyone comes out smelling of roses and this meant I really didn't care enough about the characters to want to know the outcome.
I also found the first few chapters where the author is establishing the boundaries for Annabel are a bit clunky and her restraints needed were explained several times. The references to books of the time, most of which I've not read became rather annoying as I didn't see the point and the way the one man switched between a pipe and cigarettes confused me.
The story continues as Annabel persuades her replacement teacher, Alec, to investigate and gradually various secrets are exposed and we come to understand how those secrets could lead to decisive action.
Sadly I didn't think the book was as good as the blurb, but it was an interesting take on the usual murder mystery and I'm sure many will enjoy it.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy in return for an honest review.
June 28, 2025
An overall excellent well depicted psychological mystery, almost gothic in style. Not so much in my opinion full of the conventional "twists and turns" but a sad and poignant story which becomes even more intriguing as it unfolds. So much so in fact, that I stayed awake into the small hours in order to finish it in one sitting, which is not a common occurrence these days!
Set in a private girls' school in the closing stages of WW2, we see at once both the relatively sheltered lives of the inhabitants living in England's pleasant countryside, alongside the fairly unpleasant reality of an institutional life in a shabby decaying environment. As with many such schools after the war, it is clearly failing, with no funds to be able to provide the level of excellence promised in its brochures, either in facilities or quality of teaching. Taylor seems able to brilliantly depict any era he sets his mind to, and is rightly acclaimed for his historical fiction (even though I find it hard to deal with the mid 20th century being "historical"!). Despite this being all slightly before my era - though the war cast a long shadow over the next two decades - nor was I ever sent to board at a lesser (or otherwise) private school, how true to life the characterisations of the school environment. The complex relationships and petty rivalries in the classroom and staff room are all magnified in their enclosed little community with few outside influences - all rather reminiscent of P D James' favourite trope.
I came to this author through the Marwood/Lovett books - and then the Lydmouth series, so this story line was a definite deviation from my own preconceptions - though not at all unwelcome. Unlike some other readers, I found this departure from the norm very refreshing, and the writing was, of course, as brilliant as ever. (I'm not going to expand on that at risk of spoiling the plot, even though it soon becomes apparent at the start of the narrative.)
Set in a private girls' school in the closing stages of WW2, we see at once both the relatively sheltered lives of the inhabitants living in England's pleasant countryside, alongside the fairly unpleasant reality of an institutional life in a shabby decaying environment. As with many such schools after the war, it is clearly failing, with no funds to be able to provide the level of excellence promised in its brochures, either in facilities or quality of teaching. Taylor seems able to brilliantly depict any era he sets his mind to, and is rightly acclaimed for his historical fiction (even though I find it hard to deal with the mid 20th century being "historical"!). Despite this being all slightly before my era - though the war cast a long shadow over the next two decades - nor was I ever sent to board at a lesser (or otherwise) private school, how true to life the characterisations of the school environment. The complex relationships and petty rivalries in the classroom and staff room are all magnified in their enclosed little community with few outside influences - all rather reminiscent of P D James' favourite trope.
I came to this author through the Marwood/Lovett books - and then the Lydmouth series, so this story line was a definite deviation from my own preconceptions - though not at all unwelcome. Unlike some other readers, I found this departure from the norm very refreshing, and the writing was, of course, as brilliant as ever. (I'm not going to expand on that at risk of spoiling the plot, even though it soon becomes apparent at the start of the narrative.)
August 28, 2025
Having read and enjoyed several Andrew Taylor novels before, this felt like a completely different style of book. The cover is suitably gothic and, if you read the afterword the end of the book, it fits the author's vision. The story was a bit Ghosts meets Sunset Boulevard, narrated by a missing teacher who is quickly revealed to be a murder victim. Anyone who's read any crime fiction would already be thinking is this woman an unreliable narrator? The plot and characters are pretty much from central casting as is the setting of a down at heel girls' boarding school in the middle of nowhere. There's an old ex-gamekeeper, straight out of Cold Comfort Farm, a mixed bag of school mistresses, a band of school girls who were more St. Trinian's than MaloryTowers, various down trodden servants and all kinds of nastiness in the woodshed and anywhere else you care to look. The idea of the ghost of a murder investigating her own killing is a good idea but I'm not sure how successful it was in practice. The repetition of some aspects slowed down the story. We're told fairly early on that the ghost can't go anywhere that she'd hadn't already been in life so I don't know why we had to be endlessly reminded of this. I didn't find anyone in the story likeable and I found that a drawback. I had a sense when I'd finished that there was an untold story which would have been far more interesting. Every character had a back story full of skeletons and we barely got to explore those themes. In particular the place of women in the first half of the 20th century. Much of the revealed twists and turns of what happened links to the treatment of women and how they were denied opportunities. I think it's poignant towards the end of the book that there's a sense of life going on without those who've died. This must have been a common thread at the end of the second world war as it is now when anyone dies. The clocks don't stop whoever it is.
December 6, 2025
Full marks for imagination. I usually dislike the supernatural in stories, but after getting over the first negative reaction, I was willing to go along with it – until … Annabel Warnock was a teacher in a remote girls’ boarding school in the 40s. She was murdered and her ghost becomes the narrator, desperate to find out who had killed her. Well, I’ll see how it goes. Very well for a long time. We get excellent insights into that period and more particularly into the dynamics of a girl’s boarding school, the girls themselves and their teachers, the fact that a ghost is narrating becomes ok. She can only go where she has previously been and here comes the first stone to swallow, she can communicate with Mr Shaw, a somewhat shady temporary teacher, only when he is writing his novel but not otherwise. The various girls and teachers are paraded as possible murderers, together with some very odd males, the gardener, a terrible boy, a draft dodger, all within the setting of an old once mansion house and its creepy gardens and forests, and a steep cliff, from which Annabel was pushed. The setting is very well done, as the author explains in an afterword. But here is a male writing in the first person of a female including her lesbian love affairs. One reviewer pronounced this as “icky” but it’s the writing that counts: otherwise a male shouldn’t write in a female voice, or a Welshman in an English voice if you take that issue to its logical conclusion. It’s the quality of writing that counts, does it enable you to suspend disbelief, as Coleridge put it? Yes, Taylor does do that – until the end. Some reviewers liked the end. I didn’t. I felt Taylor, successful so far, overstepped his licence. There is perhaps too much description, but having read his other works the Marwood and Cat series, this experimental genre was worth a go, but no. Not for me but credit where it’s due.
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