Gentlemen & Players - Joanne Harris

Part of the serendipity of the library is coming across a book by chance and loving it! This book was truly excellent. A strange mixture of fantasy, whodunnit and study in character it tells the

tale (and Joanne Harris seems to be an true storyteller) of St Oswald's, a public school and those associated with it, many of whom find it difficult to adapt to modern life. The novel is set out like a chess game - the central character the child of a former resident porter of the school who becomes obsessed with life within this 'forbidden' institution - forbidden because they are of the wrong class, and poor, and the child of someone working for the school. This obsession leads tragically to death and revenge - against both the place and those who teach and are pupils there. The two competitors in the chess game are a Latin Master coming towards his retirement and the child of the porter who as a teenager assumes a new identity to infiltrate the school as a 'pupil' and then returns to inflict havoc on the school. It is a true page turner and has a magnificent twist in the tale. Rating 8/10