In fact, the story is shared between two narrators: Straitley and his former student, ‘Ziggy’, whose sections are written in the form of letters to another friend, ‘Mousey’. I particularly liked that the student characters were just as important as the masters, which is surprisingly rare.

I adore a good campus crime novel, and Different Class was no exception. However, like the preceding titles in the series, Gentlemen and Players (2005) and Blueeyedboy (2010), it can be read as a stand alone book.

Longtime fans of Harris will recognise Different Class as the third novel in her trilogy set in the fictional town of Malbry. It’s also a cracking good mystery, rife with suspense and unexpected twists. And it certainly doesn’t help that the new Head is one of his former students-a student he never liked.Īs the school begins to modernise around him, Straitley reflects on certain sinister events that occurred when the new Head was one of his pupils and sees a disturbing pattern emerging.ĭifferent Class (Doubleday, 2016) is a story of deception, prejudice and the abuse of power as it occurs both in institutions and the world at large. Veteran Latin master, Roy Straitley, is resisting these new developments with all his might. They’ve replaced the old honour boards with shiny new banners depicting smiling students, political correctness has been taken to such an extreme that victims are being made to apologise to their bullies, sixth form Mulberry girls have admitted into certain classes, students are now ‘customers’ and all written communications must now be made via email: St Oswald’s is going paper-free. A crisis team has been recruited to turn things around.

Times are changing at St Oswald’s school for boys.

Different class joanne harris synopsis