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 boysโ 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 Crumwallisโs unfortunate choice for the next headboy. For when something sinister popped up in the punch on Parentsโ Evening, when nasty pranks became no joke, the next event at bloody Burleigh was bound to be . . . simply murder.
โCrackerjack entertainment . . . deserves the kind of raves heaped up on his other prize whodunits.โ Publishers Weekly
โThere is no one quite like Robert Barnard in his ability to combine chills and chuckles and to sprinkle the whole with delicious irony.โ San Diego Union
โThe wryest wit and most scathing satire in todayโs mystery.โ Chicago Sun-Times