Gentlemen and Players: A Novel

The New York Times bestselling author takes a riveting new direction with this richly textured, multi-layered novel of friendship, murder, revenge, and class conflict set in an upper-crust English school―as enthralling and haunting as Ian McKewan’s Atonement and Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. RipleyAudere, agere, auferre.To dare, to strive, to conquer.For generations, elite young men have attended St. Oswald’s School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric classics teacher who has been a revered fixture for more than 30 years. But this year, things are different. Suits, paperwork, and Information Technology rule the world, and Straitley is reluctantly contemplating retirement. He is joined in this, his 99th, term by five new faculty members, including one who―unknown to Straitley and everyone else―holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Ozzie’s ways and secrets, it’s comforts and conceits. Harboring dark ties to the school’s past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: Destroy St. Oswald’s. As the new term gets underway, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike. Beginning as small annoyances―a lost pen, a misplaced coffee mug―they soon escalate to the life threatening. With the school unraveling, only Straitley stands in the way of St. Ozzie’s ruin. But the old man faces a formidable opponent―a master player with a strategy that has been meticulously planned to the final move. A harrowing tale of cat and mouse told in alternating voices, this riveting, hypnotically atmospheric novel showcases Joanne Harris’s astonishing storytelling talent as never before.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Bestseller Harris (Holy Fools) exposes the brittle line dividing the haves and have-nots in this disturbing yet strangely rewarding morality tale set in the hallowed halls of St. Oswald's, an aristocratic British boys' school hovering on the edge of extinction. Audere, agere, auferre (To dare, to strive, to conquer), the school motto, is something young outsider Snyde, whose father has become St. Oswald's porter (or caretaker), takes painfully to heart after infiltrating the institution as a student under the alias "Julian Pinchbeck." Snyde's secret crush on Leon Mitchell, a charismatic upper-class boy, leads to tragic consequences that include the senior Snyde's losing his job. Fifteen years later, Snyde returns, masquerading as a teacher and plotting retribution. Classics teacher Roy Straitley, with his easygoing, ruefully resigned viewpoint, nicely contrasts with Snyde's relentless first-person intensity. Straitley, who loves St. Oswald's, unwittingly proves to be a formidable opponent and provides Snyde with a vital lesson: not every chess game ends with checkmate. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Three voices are heard in this tale of a venerable English boys' school. One belongs to Roy Straitley, a veteran teacher of classics. Another is that of a teacher who has just arrived at St. Oswald's with the malicious intent of bringing it down through well-placed rumor and cunning innuendo. The third is that of a child from 14 years earlier who loves the school but does not belong to it. He even assumes an alter identity, Julian Pinchbeck, complete with uniform, in order to roam the school at will and as much as possible escape the painful reality of life with his loutish father, its porter. Then he makes a friend at St. Oswald's and at last has someone from his chosen world with whom to spend his time. But everything unravels with the death of Julian's adored friend. Now the teacher who was the child Julian returns. Harris shows what a master storyteller she is through the play and counterplay of current happenings twisting through the telling of what went on before. The story builds suspensefully and cleverly with surprises and turns to a satisfying denouement.–Judy Braham, George Mason Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Harris, author of Chocolat (1999), Five Quarters of the Orange (2001), Holy Fools (**** May/June 2004), and other fiction, has switched genres once again. This time, she’s crafted a school novel as murder mystery. This elegant, class-themed whodunit pans back and forth in time and features two slightly unreliable narrators. While Straitley represents the school’s ethos, Snyde, by contrast, is pure evil—too much so for Harris to portray adequately. The premise, compounded with a shocking final twist, also stretched credibility for some critics. If in the end the pieces don’t all fit together, Gentlemen offers a complex tale of intrigue and revenge.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Harris seems determined to conquer every genre. Chocolat (1999) is a love story, Five Quarters of the Orange (2001) is a historical-suspense novel, and here she turns to the literary thriller, with stunning results. Set at an elite British grammar school, the novel unfolds through the alternating first-person narration of two teachers. One is young, anonymous, and new to the school but holds an old grudge against the venerable institution and is determined to bring it down through an elaborately planned series of malicious acts. The other narrator is longtime classics teacher Roy Straitley, who is feeling increasingly marginalized as he is forced to kowtow to the ever-expanding IT department and their draconian rules. It seems his mastery of his subject and of the psychology of dealing with his young charges is no longer valued. But as small incidents escalate to far more serious ones, it is left to the wily old Straitley to determine who is undermining his beloved school. Harris combines the conventions of the academic novel--its vicious politicking and rich dynamics--with the taut suspense of a thriller as she leaves tantalizing clues as to the perpetrator's identity. Like Donna Tartt's Secret History (1992), this is one hypnotic page-turner. Joanne WilkinsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Washington Post Book World

“Irresistible . . . Constantly surprising and wickedly fun.”

Daily News

“With GENTLEMEN & PLAYERS Harris has tapped an unsuspected talent for writing sophisticated, absorbing suspense.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“[A] disturbing yet strangely rewarding morality tale . . . Not every chess game ends with a checkmate.”

Houston Chronicle

“Riveting . . . The checkmate is a bold stroke -- so audacious as to send readers, including this one, backtracking.”

Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press

“[A] masterful literary thriller.”

Mail on Sunday

“Far darker than Chocolat author Harris’s previous books, this canny page-turner comes with a satisfying twist.”

Bookseller (London)

“Very good indeed.”

Time Out London

“A complex, well-crafted murder mystery, with its author’s trademark blend of wit, wisdom and magic.”

Sunday Times (London)

“[An] enjoyable mystery romp.”

The Independent

“Fun with a neat twist ... it’s a bit like A.J. Wentworth squaring up to the talented Mr. Ripley.”

Times Educational Supplement

“A strong psychological mystery.”

Independent

“A literary gobstopper with an aniseed heart.”

The Guardian

“Harris pulls it all off . . . Book groups of the world, watch out.”

Booklist (starred review)

“[Harris] turns to the literary thriller, with stunning results . . . This is one hypnotic page-turner.”

Daily Telegraph (London)

“[A] clever story of obsession and revenge . . . .[Harris] has scored another success.”

Express

“[A] gripping psychological thriller. . . . [Harris] cleverly keeps the reader guessing till the very last chapter.

Chicago Tribune

“One of those rare books that grips and holds you . . . [B]oth socially important and vastly entertaining.”

Seattle Times

“Don’t start this one late in the evening, unless you plan to stay up all night. It’s that gripping.”

New York Times Book Review

“Best of all is a dazzling climactic twist . . . . its last move is a winner.”

Hartford Courant

“Perfect escapist reading for deep winter.”

Florida Times-Union

“A cunning, high-brow cat-and-mouse tale ... [W]ill keep even the sharpest readers off-guard.”

Tampa Tribune

“[A] tense, perspective-shifting narrative ... [A] page-turning climax that ... avoids the easy out of a tidy ending.”

Salon.com

“The gold standard for this year’s best mystery...[GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS] left me breathless...a delightful read.”

From the Back Cover

Audere, agere, auferre.To dare, to strive, to conquer.For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. But this year the wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork, and information technology are beginning to overshadow St. Oswald's tradition, and Straitley is finally, and reluctantly, contemplating retirement. He is joined this term by five new faculty members, including one who -- unbeknownst to Straitley and everyone else -- holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Oswald's ways and secrets. Harboring dark ties to the school's past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: to destroy St. Oswald's.As the new term gets under way, a number of incidents befall students and faculty alike. Beginning as small annoyances -- a lost pen, a misplaced coffee mug -- they are initially overlooked. But as the incidents escalate in both number and consequence, it soon becomes apparent that a darker undercurrent is stirring within the school. With St. Oswald's unraveling, only Straitley stands in the way of its ruin. The veteran teacher faces a formidable opponent, however -- a master player with a bitter grudge and a strategy that has been meticulously planned to the final move, a secret game with very real, very deadly consequences.A harrowing tale of cat and mouse, this riveting, hypnotically atmospheric novel showcases New York Times bestselling author Joanne Harris's astonishing storytelling talent as never before.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Gentlemen and PlayersA NovelBy Joanne HarrisHarperCollins Publishers, Inc.Copyright ©2005 Joanne HarrisAll right reserved.ISBN: 0060559144Chapter OneIf there's one thing I've learned in the past fifteen years, it's this: that murder is really no big deal. It's just a boundary, meaningless and arbitrary as all others -- a line drawn in the dirt.Like the giant no trespassers sign on the drive to St. Oswald's, straddling the air like a sentinel. I was nine years old at the time of our first encounter, and it loomed over me then with the growling menace of a school bully.no trespassersno unauthorized entry beyond this point by orderAnother child might have been daunted by the command. But in my case curiosity overrode the instinct. By whose order? Why this point and not another? And most importantly, what would happen if I crossed that line?Of course I already knew the school was out of bounds. By then I'd been living in its shadow for six months, and already that tenet stood tall among the commandments of my young life, as laid down by John Snyde. Don't be a sissy. Look after your own. Work hard, play hard. A little drink never did anyone any harm. And, most importantly, Stay clear of St. Oswald's, occasionally punctuated by a Stay bloody clear if you know what's good for you, or a warning punch to the upper arm. The punches were supposed to be friendly, I knew. All the same, they hurt. Parenting was not one of John Snyde's special skills.Nevertheless, for the first few months I obeyed without question. Dad was so proud of his new job as Porter; such a fine old school, such a great reputation, and we were going to live in the Old Gatehouse, where generations of Porters before us had lived. There would be tea on the lawn on summer evenings, and it would be the beginning of something wonderful. Perhaps, when she saw how well we were doing now, Mum might even come home.But weeks passed, and none of that happened. The gatehouse was a Grade 2 listed building, with tiny, latticed windows that let in hardly any light. There was a perpetual smell of damp, and we weren't allowed a satellite dish because it would have lowered the tone. Most of the furniture belonged to St. Oswald's -- heavy oak chairs and dusty dressers -- and next to them our own things -- salvaged from the old council flat on Abbey Road -- looked cheap and out of place. My dad's time was entirely taken up with his new job, and I quickly learned to be self-reliant -- to make any demand, such as regular meals or clean sheets, qualified as being a sissy -- not to trouble my father at weekends, and always to lock my bedroom door on Saturday nights.Mum never wrote; any mention of her also counted as being a sissy, and after a while I started to forget what she had looked like. My dad had a bottle of her perfume hidden under his mattress, though, and when he was out on his rounds, or down the Engineers with his mates, I would sometimes sneak into his bedroom and spray a little of that perfume -- it was called Cinnabar -- onto my pillow and maybe pretend that Mum was watching TV in the next room, or that she'd just popped into the kitchen to get me a cup of milk and that she'd be back to read me a story. A bit stupid, really: she'd never done those things when she was home. Anyway, after a bit, Dad must have thrown the bottle away, because one day it was gone, and I couldn't even remember how she'd smelled anymore.Christmas approached, bringing bad weather and even more work for the porter to deal with, so we never did get to have tea on the lawns. On the other hand, I was happy enough. A solitary child even then; awkward in company; invisible at school. During the first term I kept to myself; stayed out of the house; played in the snowy woods behind St. Oswald's and explored every inch of the school's perimeter -- making sure never to cross the forbidden line.I discovered that most of St. Oswald's was screened from public view; the main building by a long avenue of linden trees -- now bare -- which bordered the drive, and the land surrounded on all sides by walls and hedges. But through the gates I could see those lawns -- mowed to banded perfection by my father -- the cricket grounds with their neat hedges; the chapel with its weather vane and its inscriptions in Latin. Beyond that lay a world as strange and remote in my eyes as Narnia or Oz; a world to which I could never belong.My own school was called Abbey Road Juniors; a squat little building on the council estate, with a bumpy playground built on a slant and two entrance gates with boys and girls written above them in sooty stone. I'd never liked it; but even so I dreaded my arrival at Sunnybank Park, the sprawling comprehensive that I was destined by postcode to attend.Since my first day at Abbey Road I'd watched the Sunnybankers -- cheap green sweatshirts with the school logo on the breast, nylon rucksacks, fag ends, hair spray -- with growing dismay. They would hate me, I knew it. They would take one look at me and they would hate me. I sensed it immediately. I was skinny; undersized; a natural hander-in of homework. Sunnybank Park would swallow me whole.I pestered my father. "Why? Why the Park? Why there?""Don't be a sissy. There's nothing wrong with the Park, kid. It's just a school. They're all the bloody same."Well, that was a lie. Even I knew that. It made me curious; it made me resentful. And now, as spring began to quicken over the bare land and white buds burst from the blackthorn hedges, I looked once more at that no trespassers sign, painstakingly lettered in my father's hand, and asked myself: Whose ORDER? Why this point and not another? And, with an increasing sense of urgency and impatience: What would happen if I crossed that line?Continues...Excerpted from Gentlemen and Playersby Joanne Harris Copyright ©2005 by Joanne Harris. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

About the Author

Joanne Harris is the author of seven previous novels—Chocolat, Blackberry Wine, Five Quarters of the Orange, Coastliners, Holy Fools, Sleep, Pale Sister, and Gentlemen & Players; a short story collection, Jigs & Reels; and two cookbook/memoirs, My French Kitchen and The French Market. Half French and half British, she lives in England.

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