A Schooling in Murder

*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.


Genre: Historical Mystery

"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 Fremantle

"A grand piece of work - a triumph and one of Taylor's best." - Mick Herron

"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

"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

"This ticked all the boxes for me. As good as I'd expect from a master of the craft." - Val McDermid

"Andrew Taylor re-invents the classic crime story with the dark aplomb of a modern master." - S G MacLean

"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

"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

"A Schooling in Murder captures the period brilliantly and what a loveable main character- a total delight." - Leonora Nattrass

"An engrossing, eerie and erudite page turner which maintains the suspense until the very end ... I defy anyone not to enjoy this captivating whodunnit!" - S W Perry

"A wonderfully unique novel from the master of historical crime fiction. Beautiful, haunting, and quite brilliant." - Laura Shepherd-Robinson

"Beguiling." - Douglas Skelton