A Schooling in Murder: The gripping new WWII historical mystery from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London

by Andrew Taylor

*A Times Best Book of the Year*From the author of The Ashes of London, comes a new historical mystery set in the last days of WWII'Ten out of ten' The Times

‘A grand piece of work – a triumph and one of Taylor’s best’ MICK HERRON

'A wonderfully unique novel from the master of historical crime fiction. Beautiful, haunting, and quite brilliant' LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON

‘As good as I’d expect from a master of the craft’ VAL MCDERMID

'A wonderful, subtle novel, set in a strange, enclosed world. Beautiful writing and a gloriously satisfying ending' ANN CLEEVES

__________

England, May 1945

In the last days of World War II, Monkshill Park School for Girls stands far apart from the violence in Europe. Yet a woman has been murdered in its grounds.

Annabel Warnock, a teacher with a secretive past, has disappeared. The teachers and girls whisper that she’s run away, but in fact she has met a violent end.

Replacement tutor and amateur crime writer Alec Shaw arrives to find a school riven with bitter rivalries and dangerous tensions. He begins to suspect there is a real-life mystery waiting to be solved… and these echoing halls hide a killer.

384 pages, Paperback

Published May 26, 2026

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Fiona Scovell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really entertaining read. An unusual twist to the murder mystery.

[Beata · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slow. Disappointing.

[Trevor Vick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very different from the earlier Tudor novels. This one was set in the immediate post-war years, in a low-achieving private girls school located in the suburbs of the Forest of Dean. Its grounds had not been fully risk-assessed as people kept launching from the vertiginous river cliffs into the Wye below. It was, sort of, Richard Osman does St Trinians’ with seemingly bumbling harmless characters having very dark sides to them amidst the jolly hockey-sticks. Oh! And it was revealed very early-on that the narrator was a ghost who fell victim to those dreaded cliffs in mysterious circumstances. If your bag is realism and historical accuracy, then this ain’t for you. But I was definitely entertained.

[Colin Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Andrew Taylor's The Ashes of London was very enjoyable, and that made me pick up this new book at the Library. The plot centres around an old mansion converted to a fourth rate girls' boarding school in the south west of England during 1945. Alec Shaw arrives as a temporary tutor, replacing Annabel Warnock, who has disappeared, seemingly causing little concern among the staff or the local police! We then fast forward to mysterious messages from the ghost who is the book's narrator.

A good concept that, for me, failed to deliver. The plot soon became see through when I had picked the villain in the first third of the book. The whole became quite tedious with a lot of repetitive dialogue. This one was simply not for me, although I did persevere to the end. 2 stars, just.

[Louise Fincham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding novel from an accomplished novelist. The story has an unusual setting, clever plot and heartbreaking ending. Highly recommended.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought the book in Waterstones.Such a good story. Written from the murder victim's perspective and has a couple of great twists that you don't see coming.

[Elizabeth Hore · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poor story, poor editing, poor characters. Not for me.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have really struggled with this book. It’s about a girls boarding school in the Second World War and a series of events that happened there. The teller is a ghost which just irked me.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read with a surprising ending.