The Burleigh school was dying. It would be called a mercy killing were it not for the little band of inept, eccentric, or otherwise unemployable teachers who depended on this absolutely awful English boysβ academy for their meagre livelihoods. A lack of funds, facilities, and foresight had brought Burleigh to the very edge of extinction. Now someone planned to give it one final, deadly push.
Malice was afoot behind the ivied walls, trailing hard on the heels of Hilary Frome, Headmaster Crumwallisβs unfortunate choice for the next headboy. For when something sinister popped up in the punch on Parentsβ Evening, when nasty pranks became no joke, the next event at bloody Burleigh was bound to be . . . simply murder.
βCrackerjack entertainment . . . deserves the kind of raves heaped up on his other prize whodunits.β Publishers Weekly
βThere is no one quite like Robert Barnard in his ability to combine chills and chuckles and to sprinkle the whole with delicious irony.β San Diego Union
βThe wryest wit and most scathing satire in todayβs mystery.β Chicago Sun-Times