I absolutely loved it. ( )

I really enjoyed this one. It moved seamlessly from character to charater, past to present. I kept trying to figure out the twists but was completely surprised in the end. Great great book! ( )

St. Oswald's Grammer School for Boys has stood for generations. Students and teachers have come and gone. There have been a few scandals but the school has survived. Now the institution is under attack from the inside. Things have gone missing, property has been vandalized, and teachers have been accused of incompetence and inappropriate behavior. Could the occurences have something to do with a tragedy that happened fifteen years before?
The story is told by two characters; Roy Straitley, the classics teacher who has been at the school for more than thrity years and the person who is causing the troubles. Roy is loved by his students because they can tell how much he cares. The reader discovers what happened in the past through the memories of the person who is creating the mayhem. This indivual is obviously mentally ill.
What I found interesting about this book, besides the well written story, was the great similarities between the British and American education systems. Some of the problems the teachers had with incompetent administation, changes in curriculum and overly protective parents are the same challenges faced by many educators in America. My edition of the novel contains an essay at the end on education by the author who was a teacher for twelve years. ( )

Excellent. Had me going to the end. ( )

Suspenseful, red herrings, didn't see the fact that the main character was a girl. didn't see this twist coming at all. Slow to start and somewhat confusing at the beginning as we shift from one character to another. ( )