A Narrow Door: The electric psychological thriller from the Sunday Times bestseller

Product Information

Her hobbies are listed in Who's Who as 'mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion'. Joanne Harris's assured hand leads you into a psychological maze, deeper and deeper into a dark world of emotional complexity and betrayal, where twist follows twist and nothing is what it seems. This actually didn’t matter that I hadn’t read either of the previous books, I quite happily read this as a standalone. After reading a lot of books and watching movies about private schools, I always wonder why the schools don't have Classics and Latin. The battle between the then and the now, the fight against the patriarchy, the control and apparent ease within the writing is just outstanding.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. It's over fifteen years since I read the first in the St Oswald's series; Gentlemen and Players and five years since I read the follow up; Different Class.The story unfolds as they reveal their stories to each other and the reader is drawn deep into the complex events of the past. So many of them are not what they seem which keeps the reader constantly on their toes, and there is really no way to guess what is going to happen next. Isto porque, em 1971, o irmão mais velho de Rebecca desapareceu misteriosamente e, ela, com apenas 5 anos, ficou muito abalada. I’ve taught several over my fifteen years in the profession, although in those days pupils were a lot less articulate about issues of gender and identity than they are nowadays, and they wouldn’t have expressed it as such. With each chapter Rebecca Buckfast sheds layer upon layer of her dark tale taking Roy and the reader into her dark tale.

Smallface and all the scary noises coming from the sink drain comes across like a bargain basement version of Pennywise the Clown. Despite all the revelations, too many characters lacked sufficient depth, their role coming across as inauthentic. Rebecca begins to tell essentially her background story to Straitley and therefore us, the reader too.Loved this one every bit as much as the first two - pity it has been such a long time coming that I had lost track of the characters to a certain extent but still a great read - 9/10.

I can’t say too much more about the plot for fear of spoilers, but what I can say is that Joanne Harris's descriptions of the old school, with its quads, its ancient buildings, its bell tower and its dusty corridors, are very well done and particularly evocative for those who, like me, have attended or who work in a traditional school like St Oswald's - in fact it was this part of the book that I found especially enjoyable. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. One of the coolest tricks Harris has, she doesn't force her opinion on the character, keeps it as neutral as possible for you to figure out it yourself. Before the school year has even started in earnest, Straitley is approached by his Brodie Boys from his old class, who have made a shocking discovery - the building site appears to have turned up a body. Rebecca can never let go of her brother Conrad who went missing when she was just a child, whilst Roy's memories are of his colleague Eric Scoones.

Roy investigates and goes to the schools Headmaster Rebecca Buckfast, however the Headmaster has other plans, she decides to share her life story with Roy, spinning a tale which ensnares Roy in her spider's web. I had a lot of fun with episodes like: the Banda machine; the file of pre-prepared lessons; the pep talk with the Head of Department; being mistaken for a boy because I was wearing trousers. Written by an author who is skilful at keeping us guessing right up to the very last page, I recommend highly to her many fans and those that enjoy psychological thrillers. Straitley again: He´s a wonderful character;it´s a letdown that the author had him brought down (killed, that is) by a two bit psycopath (however traumatised ,that´s what she is). Told from the perspectives of Rebecca and Straightly, this was a book that required concentration, the back and forth between timelines and characters wasn’t an issue, these are clearly defined but the plot and backstory is a complex one and there are many characters which need to be remembered from both timelines.

If you’re a fan of crime fiction, or dark academia, or novels with a strong voice that never grates on your nerves, you should give this one a go. Onward to Lethe (Forgetfulness) with the dilemma of childhood memories versus imagination, what is real and what is false? Not only is there a female head teacher, but the school has now gone coeducational, and Straitley finds himself required to teach girls. Fortunately, despite having had a heart attack and being offered retirement, Classics master Roy Straitley is still in his post, determined that he will not be put out to pasture and is still teaching Latin to his boys - but, of course, he now has young girls to contend with. She has also written a DR WHO novella for the BBC, has scripted guest episodes for the game ZOMBIES, RUN!Both my protagonists have a secret: Rebecca’s is the human remains under St Oswald’s playing-field; Straitley’s is the fact that his friend, Eric Scoones, was once an abuser of boys. Her life changed from that day – her parents never got over his disappearance and emotionally they disappeared from her life too. Full disclosure; I’m mostly with Straitley on this: although I see the many virtues of moving forward, I do feel a certain nostalgia for how things used to be, too. Of course, Freud would have had a lot to say about the tunnel as an image; in this case, it’s one of repression – the repression of memory, of sexuality, of feelings.