O Gentle Death - Hardcover

Neel, Janet

4.15

150 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312280521 ISBN 13: 9780312280529

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Faraday Trust, a fashionably liberal boarding school with a reputation for musical excellence is struggling in the face of exams. Poor test scores have prompted several withdrawals, and as a result, the trustees are beginning to worry. The headmaster has been asked to step down and a raging battle for his position is about to begin.

In the midst of this turmoil a troubled young pupil is causing her parents and the staff a great deal of concern. Disruptive, moody, and sexually precocious, Catriona Roberts is struggling academically and depressed about her relationship with the school's musical star, Giles Quentin. She has slashed her wrists on more than one occasion, and no one is surprised when she is found dead at a party, immersed in a tub of bloody water. But Detective Chief Inspector John McLeish and his wife, Francesca Wilson, are also guests at this party, and McLeish-too experienced to accept the obvious conclusion-quickly determines that this was not a suicide. The fact that Catriona was three months pregnant only confirms his suspicions.

One of the first to be questioned is Giles Quentin. Could he have killed the troubled girl to save his burgeoning singing career? Or was it Piers Miller, a favorite for the headmaster position, whom Catriona had accused of harassment just hours before her death?

A grave threat to Francesca and her family brings the investigation to a thrilling and unexpected end.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Janet Neel won the John Creasey Award from the British Crime Writers' Association for her first novel, Death's Bright Angel, and has since been short-listed twice for their Gold Dagger Award. She has studied law at Cambridge, worked in the United States designing war games, and served as an administrator in Britain's Department of Trade and Industry. She is now the director of a bank and two public companies as well as an adviser to the Ministry of Defense. Ms. Neel has three children and lives in London with her husband.

From Publishers Weekly:

Francesca Wilson's seventh appearance (after 1998's To Die For) is certainly a lucky one for British author Neel. The end of term at Faraday Trust school in Dorset brings not only the usual final exams and a music recital in London but also the unexpected resignation of the headmaster and the death of a troubled student, Catriona Roberts. Rejected by the boy she has thrown herself at and feeling rejected by both of her divorced and remarried parents, Catriona had made abortive, halfhearted attempts at suicide. Though at first it seems as if she's finally succeeded, her death turns out to be murder. Among those with motive and opportunity are parents, stepparents, teachers and fellow students. Broken families and extended families, including his own, preoccupy Det. Chief Supt. John McLeish, Francesca's husband, as he leads the careful police work that untangles the relationships of the many suspects and a puzzle that will keep readers guessing to the last. The author adroitly renders the adolescent students (fragile, precocious, bumbling, cocky) and is no less successful in depicting the members of the teaching staff (caring, fallible, conniving, confused). Neel's publishing pace of a book every two or three years may seem slow in a genre where annual volumes are the rule, but her subtle characterizations and burnished prose justify the wait. (Sept. 17) FYI: Neel has won the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasy Prize.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.