The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.
But the local police cannot rule out foul play, and the case prompts the reluctant return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Reunited with her loyal sergeant, she enters the closed world of the school and begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death.
When staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of a young pupil and the death of an elderly classics master provide Jazz with important leads. But, while snow covers the landscape, a suspect goes missing.
As Jazz must confront her personal demons, a grim discovery at the school will make this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined . . .
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‘As the figure took the stairs leading to the sixth-form corridor – a maze of showbox-sixed studies, one per boy – the only sounds were the clanking and stirring coming from the antiquated radiators, inefficient cast-iron sentinels that had struggled to warm Fleat House and the boys within it for the past fifty years’. – Prologue, St Stepehen’s School, Norfolk, January 2005
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(Macmillan, 26 May 2022, hardback, 480 pages, borrowed from North Ayrshire Libraries)
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I’m a fan of the author from The Seven Sisters series so decided to read her other fiction as well. I really enjoyed The Murders at Fleat House. I read a lot of crime fiction and this ticks all the boxes of the genre. I liked Jazz as a character. She really comes to life and I was on her side from the start. I also liked the setting. I haven’t read much crime fiction set at a boarding school so this offered something different. I liked all the twists and turns and the pacing was spot on. I’d recommend this
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