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

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

*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. A wonderfully unique novel from the master of historical crime fiction. Beautiful, haunting, and quite brilliant -- Laura Shepherd-Robinson A grand piece of work – a triumph and one of Taylor’s best -- Mick Herron This ticked all the boxes for me. As good as I’d expect from a master of the craft -- Val McDermid A heady mix of murder, intrigue, and a supernatural interlocutor . Taylor’s prose is characteristically fluid, his ability to conjure empathy for his cast – both real and spectral – wonderfully perceptive, and the plot itself gripping in the very best traditions of mystery writing. A thorough delight from start to finish -- Vaseem Khan An engrossing, eerie and erudite page turner which maintains the suspense until the very end … I defy anyone not to enjoy this captivating whodunnit! -- SW Perry A Schooling in Murder captures the period brilliantly and what a loveable main character– a total delight -- Leonora Nattrass Beguiling -- Douglas Skelton This most unusual murder mystery – in which the reader is aligned with the murder victim after her death – is an absolute triumph . Andrew Taylor turns the conventions of mystery stories on their head to explore secrets hidden just beneath the surface within a closed community. A Schooling in Murder is clever, tender and utterly haunting . -- Tim Major Andrew Taylor re-invents the classic crime story with the dark aplomb of a modern master -- S.G. MacLean A Schooling in Murder is a clever, distinctive, and beautifully written mystery from a crime writer who is top of the class -- Martin Edwards An ingenious and intriguing homage to the golden age of crime fiction – A Schooling in Murder is both wryly beguiling and steeped in atmospheric tension. I could not put it down -- Essie Fox Taylor evokes beautifully the tawdry atmosphere, the cast of misfits and the relationships and love affairs that must be hidden, with a lightness of touch that belies the deeper tragic elements of the story. This is a novel of immense charm -- Elizabeth Freemantle Crime fiction has a new superstar: Annabel Warnock is simply the best narrator I have read in a long time. Acerbic, inquisitive, irrepressible … It hardly matters that she's dead, although of course it matters very much in the plot. This is a splendidly lively and richly entertaining novel. I adored it -- Sarah Hilary The master of historical crime fiction is back and he's on top form. Taylor has reinvented the classic crime story to create a riveting WWII mystery set within a secretive school amid deadly rivalries. Brilliantly eery and suspenseful. A triumph -- Anna Mazzola An absolute masterpiece of rising tension ― Mirror A Schooling in Murder turns the country house mystery inside out with wit and wisdom. Ten out of ten. ― The Times Taylor's position at the apex of historical crime writers is reinforced ― Financial Times Taylor’s ability to conjure time past is second to none … a sublime evocation of a closed world in which the adults are, in their way, as powerless as their young charges ― Guardian Utterly brilliant … It's gripping, funny, stylish and suspenseful with several twists that surprised me -- Amanda Craig A new departure for this gifted thriller writer… a novel told by a ghost… the veteran Taylor pulls [this] off with considerable aplomb and with the narrative skill his readers have come to expect ― Spectator The gripping new WWII historical mystery from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of crime novels, including the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel, and the historical crime novels The Ashes of London, The Silent Boy, and The American Boy, a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a 2005