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Murder at School is a detective novel by James Hilton first published in 1931 under the pen-name Glen Trevor. It was released in the United States the following year under the title Was It Murder?
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Murder at School is a detective novel by James Hilton first published in 1931 under the pen-name Glen Trevor. It was released in the United States the following year under the title Was It Murder?
Murder at School deals with the phenomenon of coincidence by posing the question of how likely it is that two brothers attending the same boarding school meet with two separate accidental deaths—and curious ones at that—within the same schoolyear. In the manner typical of the Golden Age whodunnit, the solution is only presented in the final pages of the novel. Throughout the book, an amateur sleuth and a Scotland Yard detective vie with each other to solve the riddle, with only one of them successful in the end.
Murder at School remained Hilton's only detective novel— a brief youthful foray into crime fiction he shares with writers such as C. S. Forester ( Payment Deferred , 1926; Plain Murder , 1930) and C. P. Snow ( Death Under Sail , 1932).
Oakington is one of the lesser-known public schools in England, and Dr Roseveare, its headmaster, has been trying hard for seven years to improve its reputation. When, in the winter term of 1927-1928, one of the pupils is killed in his sleep by an old gas fitting falling down from the ceiling he contacts Colin Revell, an Old Boy, to discreetly investigate the matter. Not entirely convinced that there was no foul play involved but unable to pin down a motive on anyone, Revell leaves again after a few weeks, and most of the evidence is destroyed by the installation of electricity in the whole building.
A few months later Revell is shocked to learn that the deceased boy's brother has also died under mysterious circumstances—he seems to have jumped into the school's indoor swimming pool late at night after the water had been drained—and travels to Oakington of his own accord. Now it turns out that the closest relative of the two brothers, who have been orphans for years, is actually a teacher at Oakington, and that he stands to inherit a small fortune. At the same time Revell falls in love with that teacher's beautiful young wife.
Over the decades, various crime writers have made use of the traditional school setting in one of their mystery novels. The following list of examples is ordered chronologically:
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Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as speculative fiction and other genre fiction in the mid-nineteenth century and has remained extremely popular, particularly in novels. Some of the most famous heroes of detective fiction include C. Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, and Hercule Poirot. Juvenile stories featuring The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and The Boxcar Children have also remained in print for several decades.
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective.
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Crime fiction is a typically 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century genre, dominated by British and American writers. This article explores its historical development as a genre.
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A Pocket Full of Rye is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 9 November 1953, and in the US by Dodd, Mead & Co. the following year. The UK edition retailed at ten shillings and sixpence (10/6) and the US edition at $2.75. The book features her detective Miss Marple.
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Dead Boy Detectives are a fictional supernatural detective duo who have appeared in comic books published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. They were created by writer Neil Gaiman and artists Matt Wagner and Malcolm Jones III in The Sandman #25. The characters are the ghosts of two dead children, Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine, who, rather than enter the afterlife, stay on Earth to become detectives investigating supernatural crimes.
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club in November 1940, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1941 under the title of The Patriotic Murders. A paperback edition in the US by Dell books in 1953 changed the title again to An Overdose of Death. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) while the United States edition retailed at $2.00.
Hold Tight is a 2008 thriller and the ninth stand-alone novel by American crime writer Harlan Coben. The story deals with problems of parental controls, teenage suicide, children independence and abuse of prescribed drugs. It features several characters that are equally important. It was moderately well received by the critics. It debuted simultaneously as a No. 1 New York Times best seller and a Times of London best seller. A Polish language miniseries adaptation was developed for Netflix in 2022.
Overture to Death is a detective novel by Ngaio Marsh; it is the eighth novel to feature Roderick Alleyn, and was first published in 1939. The plot concerns a murder during an amateur theatrical performance in a Dorset village, which Alleyn and his colleague Fox are dispatched from Scotland Yard to investigate and duly solve.
Death at the Opera is a 1934 mystery detective novel by the British writer Gladys Mitchell. It was the fifth novel in her series featuring the psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley. It was published in the United States under the alternative title of Death in the Wet.
Tom Brown's Body is a 1949 mystery detective novel by the British writer Gladys Mitchell. It is the twenty second in her long-running series featuring the psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley. The title refers to both the novel Tom Brown's School Days and the song John Brown's Body. Mitchell had previously used a school setting for her earlier work Death at the Opera.
The Echoing Strangers is a 1952 mystery detective novel by the British writer Gladys Mitchell. It is the twenty fifth entry in her long-running series featuring the psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley.
Spotted Hemlock is a 1958 mystery detective novel by the British writer Gladys Mitchell. It is the thirty first in the long-running series of books featuring Mitchell's best known creation, the psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley. It has been considered one of Mitchell's best novels along with other works such as The Saltmarsh Murders, Death at the Opera and The Rising of the Moon.
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