Gentlemen & Players

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What to expect

The place is St Oswald’s, an old and long-established boys’ grammar school in the north of England. A new year has just begun, and for the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world and Roy Straitley, Latin master, eccentric, and veteran of St Oswald’s, is finally – reluctantly – contemplating retirement. But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for thirteen years, is about to erupt.

Who is Mole, the mysterious insider, whose cruel practical jokes are gradually escalating towards violence – and perhaps, murder? And how can an old and half-forgotten scandal become the stone that brings down a giant?

Critics Review

  • [A] gripping psychological thriller… Harris is one of our most accomplished novelists and Gentlemen & Players, with its pace, wit and acute observation, shows her at the top of her form

    DAILY EXPRESS

  • [A] delicious black comedy … the plot is so cleverly constructed, the tension so unflagging, you’d think she’d been writing thrillers all her life

    DAILY MAIL

  • With a lightness of touch, Harris illuminates just how resentment of privilege and exclusion can lead to violent resolutions… Marvellously mischievous

    GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

  • [A] clever story of obsession and revenge… Ms Harris has scored another success

    SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

  • A classic whodunnit with the characters carefully crafted and the tension at a knife edge

    SUNDAY EXPRESS (TOP TEN FICTION 2005)

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