A gripping whodunit from the bestselling author of the Chocolat series, A Narrow Door sees St Oswald's Grammar School gain its first-ever female head teacher who’s determined not to let anything stand in her way – not even a body.
Now I'm in charge, the gates are my gates. The rules are my rules.
It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls.
Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.
But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She'll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all...
You can't keep a good woman down.
First published: 2022
Pages: 448
Genres: Psychological Thriller
Amazon Rating: 4.3 out of 4,200 reviews
Our review in brief:
| 1. Rating: 7.0 out of 10 |
| 2. Recommended: There were very mixed views about the book. One member found it difficult to get into, while another said she really enjoyed it and had recommended it to a friend. Several members thought it was cleverly put together and kept their interest. Other felt that there was too much detail and too many "red herrings". The switching of timelines, also made it difficult to follow in places. |
| 3. Audience: We all agreed with would suit older women. We did not think a younger audience would appreciate it |
| 4. Type of Read: Again there were mixed views on the type of read. Some said a holiday book and others felt there were too many dark themes. It did need some concentration because of the moving timelines, misdirection and number of characters. |
| 5. Quality of the Author: The quality of the writing was good in general, but some of the descriptions were just too detailed. A few members said they would read other books by this author. |
| 6. Other Observations: The Narrow Door is a great choice for a book club, as it lead to some really interesting discussions... spoiler alert.. we all wondered how many people the headmistress really killed. |