Book Synopsis:
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.
A Narrow Door is available in ebook and hardback now. You can purchase your copy using the links below.
My Review:
This was a well plotted, atmospheric thriller which is somehow the first thriller I’ve read by this author.
The story is told from the point of view of Rebecca and Roy with the two characters seeming to represent the past and the future with their views which made for very interesting reading. Roy was my favourite character as I loved his enthusiasm and the way he had with his pupils which often made me smile as I read. He is quite old fashioned with some of his views and as such I wasn’t always on his side. Rebecca was a different character as she was bold and very ambitious lady who was determined to change things in the school. She has quite a dark past where a few hard hitting topics are mentioned and these helped soften her in my eyes and feel sympathetic towards her.
The mystery side of the story revolves around the discovery of the body, Who it is and what happened. Through flashbacks we learn a bit about the characters and what happened back in Rebecca’s brother was at the school. The author cleverly creates plenty of suspense through Roy and Rebecca’s discussions as well as leaving clues for the reader to try to follow. There were lots of fabulous twists and misdirection that had me changing my mind continuously over what might have happened which I always enjoy.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and would definitely like to read more thrillers from this author in future. This is the third book in the series but could easily be read as a standalone, like I did.
Huge thanks to Tracy for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orion for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
JOANNE HARRIS is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and in 2013 was awarded an MBE by the Queen.
Over The Rainbow Blog 
My copy is being shipped to me as I write this! The first one in this series, Gentlemen & Players, was amazing. I also read the second one, A Different Class, and loved it. There’s another book of hers that also takes place in Malbry, the same town where St. Oswald’s is located – blueeyedboy – and I recently read that one as well – also fantastic. So I can hardly wait to get my copy of this one!
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