Scholar's Mate

by John Foster

Scholar’s Mate tells the story of a little boy with an extraordinary gift, imprisoned alone in his silence, and of the quest for atonement and redemption of the man who deserted him in his hour of need. It is a tale of crime and detection, of murder and patricide, and also a moving story of love, friendship, courage and heroic sacrifice. David York sets out, with the help of attractive private eye Lesley Bradshaw, on a determined mission to unravel the dark secret buried deep in George Campbell’s past, to unearth the roots of the trauma that has isolated him. His quest will take him across the world. Stylishly crafted by the author of Nine Times in Ten, and set in his native city of Sheffield, this gripping page-turner will not let you rest until you have read to the very end. This is a novel that will make you smile and will also tear at your heart-strings.

270 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1615

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

Other authors publishing under this name are:

John Foster, English Baptist minister and essayist
John Foster, Children's poet
John Foster
John Foster, (1852- )
John Foster, British philosopher (1941-2009)
John Foster, Paleontologist (1966- )
John Foster, (1763-1829)
John Foster, (1867- )
John Foster, (1898- )
John Foster, (1926- )
John Foster, (1929- )
John Foster, (1933- )
John Foster, (1934- )
John Foster, (1940- )
John Foster, (1944-1994)
John Foster, Economist, Professor Emeritus University of Queensland
John Foster, (1852-1914)
John Foster, (1812-1872)
John Foster,Speaker of the Irish House of Commons (1740-1828)
John Foster, (1765-1831)
John Foster, (1960- )
John Foster, (1971- )
John Foster, Philosophy teacher, Associate lecturer at Lancaster University, UK
John Foster, "of Portland"
John Foster, Māori teacher

Reviews

[Steven Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholar’s Mate is extremely well written. It is told from the point of view of David York a 70-year-old former teacher at the Harry Brearley school in Sheffield and explores his relationship with an ex pupil — a most singular individual who doesn’t speak or interact with others. This individual, George Campbell, is met on his release from Wakefield prison at the beginning of a book and over the course of the novel we learn what happened.
That this novel is indie-published says a lot about modern publishing — and my presumption is that it failed to penetrate the bastion of commercial publishers. On the face of it books like this are all the vogue : psychological thrillers based around an unusual condition: take Before I Go To Sleep, for example. The problem is that Scholar’s Mate is probably too well written—it is not sufficiently trashy to have popular appeal, not sufficiently sensationalist or raunchy—in fact (spoiler alert) there’s next to no sex in it. Unlike Before I Go To Sleep, it seems believable, and the psychology credible, rather than fanciful: but it lacks that pace and sensationalism of a modern commercial novel. Instead there is intelligent reflection on what makes a good life, rather than gratuitous peril around every corner. And the protagonist is a 70-year-old ex-headteacher, whose wife has dementia, not a grizzled ex-copper with serial relationship issues.
The characters all felt very real and there are some great little cameos from minor characters such as the cleaner Suzi and the cat Tuppence, who steals every scene he enters. The plotting is good; though my one criticism is that the series of chess games at the end don’t work for me. I’m not sure what they contributed to the main plot and I was unable to suspend disbelief to allow them to happen in my own mind.
36 more Sheffield novels reviewed at: http://stevek1889.blogspot.co.uk/2014...