Gentlemen and Players: A Novel

The New York Times bestselling author takes a riveting new direction with this richly textured, multi-layered novel of friendship, murder, revenge, and class conflict set in an upper-crust English schoolas enthralling and haunting as Ian McKewans Atonement and Patricia Highsmiths The Talented Mr. Ripley Audere, agere, auferre. To dare, to strive, to conquer. For generations, elite young men have attended St. Oswalds School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric classics teacher who has been a revered fixture for more than 30 years. But this year, things are different. Suits, paperwork, and Information Technology rule the world, and Straitley is reluctantly contemplating retirement. He is joined in this, his 99th, term by five new faculty members, including one whounknown to Straitley and everyone elseholds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Ozzies ways and secrets, its comforts and conceits. Harboring dark ties to the schools past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: Destroy St. Oswalds. As the new term gets underway, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike. Beginning as small annoyancesa lost pen, a misplaced coffee mugthey soon escalate to the life threatening. With the school unraveling, only Straitley stands in the way of St. Ozzies ruin. But the old man faces a formidable opponenta master player with a strategy that has been meticulously planned to the final move. A harrowing tale of cat and mouse told in alternating voices, this riveting, hypnotically atmospheric novel showcases Joanne Harriss astonishing storytelling talent as never before.