Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

I’ve done posts on school-based crime fiction before (although not in some time), but the thing is, school is such a big part of most of our lives that we tend to connect to the characters in a school-based novel. A school-based setting just lends itself to a crime story, too. There are so many disparate personalities, and all sorts of ways in which things can go very, very wrong. Space only allows me a few examples; I know you’ll think of more.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Priory School begins when Sherlock Holmes gets a visit from Thornycroft Huxtable, head of the exclusive Priory School. It seems that one of his pupils, ten-year-old Lord Saltire, has gone missing, and Huxtable doesn’t want the police involved. He asks Holmes to investigate, and Holmes agrees. As he looks into the matter, Holmes meets up with a variety of different people who live and work there. He finds evidence both at the school and elsewhere and is able to find out what happened to the boy. It’s an interesting look at schools of the time.

Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons is set mostly at Meadowbank, an exclusive girls school. One night, Games Mistress Grace Springer is murdered at the school’s new Sports Pavilion. Then there’s a kidnapping. There’s another death, too. One of the pupils, Julia Upjohn, finds an important clue, and goes to see Hercule Poirot, whom her mother knows. He comes back to the school with her and works with the headmistress, Honoria Bulstrode, to find out who’s responsible for the things that have been going on there. It turns out that what’s going on at the school is related to an uprising in a foreign country, and a cache of valuable jewels.

Josephine Tey’s Miss Pym Disposes begins when Miss Lucy Pym, a psychologist of some repute, is invited to Leys, a physical training school for young women, to give a lecture on psychology. She’s there for several days, and she’s just getting to know the students when trouble starts. One of the students, Barbara Rouse, is selected for a much-coveted position, although another student, Mary Innes, was better qualified. This raises a lot of questions in and of itself. Then, Barbara is badly wounded and later dies of her injuries. Miss Pym has to use her alertness and her knowledge of psychology to find out what really happened to Barbara.

Reginald Hill’s An Advancement of Learning is set mostly at Holm Coultram College. Renovations at the school have unearthed the body of the college’s former president, Alison Girling. Everyone thought she was killed in an avalanche on a ski trip, but now that her body’s been found on campus, the police are called in. Superintendent Andy Dalziel and Sergeant Peter Pascoe investigate, and they find more than one possibility when it comes to a murderer. It could have been professional jealousy, student unrest, or perhaps a very personal matter. As Dalziel and Pascoe look into the case, we get a sense of what campus life was like in the early 1970s, when the book was written.

Simon Lelic’s Rupture (AKA A Thousand Cuts) is the story of history teacher Samuel Szajkowski. One afternoon, he goes into the auditorium at the school where he teaches and shoots a fellow teacher and three students. Detective Inspector (DI) Lucia May is assigned to the case. She is under a great deal of pressure to ‘rubber stamp’ the theory that Szajkowski just ‘snapped.’ But as May interviews people at the school, she begins to see that there’s more going on here. The school has, for some time, fostered a culture of bullying, which more than likely contributed a great deal to the tragedy. As the investigation continues, the school has to face its background.

As Kanae Minato’s Confessions begins, Tokyo middle school teacher and single mother Yūko Moriguchi is addressing her class. She announces her retirement, but then goes on with more shocking news. Her four-year-old daughter Manami has recently died in what was thought to be a terrible drowning accident. But she tells the students that she knows Manami was murdered. She also knows which two students are responsible. Since she doesn’t trust the Japanese juvenile justice system to deal with the killers, she’s made her own plan. She doesn’t say what it is in so many words, but her meaning is not lost on her class. After she leaves, another teacher takes over the class, and through the eyes of some of the students, we see what life is like in this Japanese middle school. It’s by no means pleasant and supportive, and things begin to spiral out of control for the students, especially for those involved in Manami’s death.

And then there’s Samantha Downing’s For Your Own Good, which actually started a comment exchange that got me thinking (again) about school-based crime fiction. That novel features Belmont Academy, a high-priced, ultra-exclusive school in the Northeast US. It’s the sort of school where the students get selected for the world’s top universities, and where parents do whatever it takes to push their children to succeed. One of those parents is Ingrid Ross, who’s heavily involved in school activities. She puts an enormous amount of pressure on her daughter Courtney, and that only adds to the pressure that Courtney puts on herself.  When Ingrid is killed, the police naturally consider Courtney a prime suspect. In fact, she is arrested. In one plot thread, we learn that her friend Zach Ward doesn’t think she’s guilty, and in his own way, he tries to find out what really happened.

There are many other novels and series set in schools (right, fans of Janice MacDonald’s Randy Craig series?). It’s a natural fit for writing crime plots if you think about it. I’ve even done it myself…  Many thanks to Cath Russell at Read-Warbler for the idea to post about this topic – it’s a great one and I appreciate it! Now, treat yourself and visit her terrific review blog!

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Pink Floyd’s The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2.