Gentlemen and Players

By: Joanne Harris

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

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. Ripley

Audere, 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.

©2006 Frogspawn, Ltd.; (P)2006 BBC Audiobooks America & HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Four stars across the board

First Joanne Harris book..... I didn't think I would like it an hour or so in - But I slowly started to warm up to it. By the end - I was thinking I should listen to it again.

Thanks, J

Good but in need of a serious edit!

Great performance but a bit too long in places. Will listen to her next book

Yep.

Nice twisty plot, well developed, believeable characters, super narrator. Kept me intrigued and guessing for all 13 hours.

One of my favorite mysteries....ever!

I have recommended this book to many people, none of whom have actually read it. It is too bad, because after listening to hundreds of books on Audible, "Gentlemen and Players" stands out. This mystery is twisty, fun, complex and above all, entertaining. I tried "Runemarks' after I read this and it did not grab me, but I would like to read more by Joanne Harris.

Frusty Olde British Prep School and Murder

Harris is at her best in creating the atmosphere of inside and outside the world of the British upper crust prep school: the kindly, the snooty, the beastly, the acceptable and the invisible. It's a wonderful juicy mystery with characters worth caring about and thinking about.
BUT added to that is the best narrator in Audible Steven Pacey who is fantastic here but would be worth listening to even if he were reading all the "begets" in The Bible!