A taut thriller

-
Different Class
Joanne Harris
Hardcover, 416 pages
Expected publication: April 21st 2016 by Doubleday 
(first published April 7th 2016)

What a corker of a novel, quite simply an absolute corker.
Latin master Roy Straitley has been teaching at St Oswald’s Grammar school for over thirty years and he has survived not just the boys but the changes in administration. Experience has taught Straitley that each year you have troublemakers, favourites, and then there is the odd boy who just cannot be pigeonholed.
St Oswald’s is going through another upheaval this time brought on by scandal and the need to modernise. While there are all this new beginnings on offer Roy Straitley finds himself confronted with the past and a sense of foreboding.
This is a taut psychological thriller that goes back and forth through time. The main point of view is Straitley who brings together all the pieces of the story. The voice that is most engaging is the unidentified person who writes to Mousey and gradually reveals some sinister intent.
Harris has written a book that grabs you and just sucks you in. You are a flipping pages and just wanting to figure out what is going on is this taut and beautifully plotted thriller.
A great read.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A world without Marie Curie is it possible?

-
Image
  Half Life by Jillian Cantor  Paperback, 416 pages Published March 23rd 2021 by Harper Perennial What would have happened if Marya Sklodowska (Maria Curie) had not travelled to Paris in 1891 but remained in Poland? This is the question in Jillian Cantor’s ‘Half Life’. What could easily become a mess as you cross between two different stories with the same central character is deftly handled by Cantor. By giving Curie a sliding doors moment in time allows Cantor to explore the woman and the scientist in this fictionalised account of her life. Curie in both her guises is well realised on the page and has slightly different characteristics. That makes the switch easier and engaging. As the woman who remains in Poland and marries mathematician, Kazimierz Zorawski, Marie is still there but as Marya her ability to learn and follow her scientific pursuits is severely curtailed. You can feel her frustration ooze off the page that she knows as a woman she is there to support her husband achiev
Read more

Family perfection awry

-
Image
  The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding Paperback, 352 pages Expected publication: August 10th 2021 by Gallery Books In Harding's The Perfect Family, the Adler Family are trying to fit into a world where social and monetary status is all important and being judged is quick and ruthless. The Perfect Family is working hard to show everyone they have the perfect marriage, perfect jobs and perfect teenagers with glittering careers ahead of them. Someone wants to expose the Adler Family and it starts with a simple egging, the intimidation increases and everyone is talking about what is happening. The Adler Family of parents Viv and Thomas and teenage children Eli and Tarryn, hold onto the charade of perfection but the family is at breaking point with each carrying a dark secret.  Each chapter switches point of view (POV) between the four family members. You are able to walk in their shoes and see the pressures each one is facing. Harding makes the switch between each of the characters sea
Read more

The truth is false or is it?

-
Image
Catch Us The Foxes by Nicola West Paperback, 320 pages, Expected publication: July 7th 2021 by Simon & Schuster Australia In the seaside township of Kiama the locals are a close knit group who happily encourage the tourist dollar. When one of their own is murdered, the popular Lily Williams, suspicion immediately falls onto the travelling carnival group. Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson, local journalist and Lily’s best friend knows things are amiss. Having discovered the mutilated body of Lily and with no-one investigating the symbols carved onto her body, Lo suspects that members of the town are hiding the truth. With a take no hostage attitude Lo rattles the town establishment to find out what really happened. Is this a murder of passion, a young woman’s descent into mental illness or a conspiracy that involves the upper echelons of the town? The reading of the Catch us the Foxes relies on the relationship you form with the narrator Lo. Her whip smart, gung-ho attitude shows a woman fully
Read more