What do you think?
Rate this book
The night of the twelfth
On the night of June 12, Sergeant Callaghan of the Surrey County Constabulary was on night duty, which he found particularly irksome. He was large, experienced, nearing retirement, and inclined to be lazy.
At ten minutes to midnight the telephone rang. It was Constable Toft, from Brading, reporting in a carefully unemotional voice that a dead boy had been discovered in a field east of Brading village. The boy was partially undressed. His hands had been tied behind his back and there was evidence that he had been assaulted and then strangled.
At ten minutes to midnight the telephone rang. It was Constable Toft, from Brading, reporting in a carefully unemotional voice that a dead boy had been discovered in a field east of Brading village. The boy was partially undressed. His hands had been tied behind his back and there was evidence that he had been assaulted and then strangled.
230 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 20, 2022
Published in 1976, this is a good example of a book that might appear dated in its attitudes and approaches to certain subjects, but on closer examination survives the test of time very well, because it is so skilfully written. Instead, it is a valuable part of our history.
Gilbert writes about adolescence well, and that is a major part of the story.
The story is a strange mixture of a traditional school mystery and a thriller; the son of the Israeli Ambassador is a pupil, and there is danger, and the signs that a sadistic killer on the loose.
Thanks to Martin Edwards's website for the recommendation.
Gilbert writes about adolescence well, and that is a major part of the story.
The story is a strange mixture of a traditional school mystery and a thriller; the son of the Israeli Ambassador is a pupil, and there is danger, and the signs that a sadistic killer on the loose.
Thanks to Martin Edwards's website for the recommendation.
April 4, 2019
Gilbert wrote a number of mysteries in which bad things happen within a closed community. In this case, the community is a boys' prep school. On the surface, it is nothing out of the ordinary--a couple of teachers and staff with the usual jealousies and personal conflicts, and a batch of boys, including one "unicorn"--the son of the Israeli ambassador to England. Gilbert sets us up with the arrival of a new teacher, Mr. Manifold, who proves well equipped to handle the more unruly boys. But he seems just a bit different from the other instructors…
Meanwhile a police task force is hunting for a serial murderer of young boys. The most recent murder might have been the last, but miscommunication at the local level delayed activation of a dragnet, and the killer slipped away. Still, the crime scene and quickly-located witnesses gives the police new clues, and they are confident they will catch the killer. But will it be in time to save the next victim?
Gilbert weaves the threads of these two stories together gradually, with a detour into an attempted kidnapping. The ending is tense and well-written. Gilbert is a master craftsman and great one for developing each character with a few strokes. A good read.
Meanwhile a police task force is hunting for a serial murderer of young boys. The most recent murder might have been the last, but miscommunication at the local level delayed activation of a dragnet, and the killer slipped away. Still, the crime scene and quickly-located witnesses gives the police new clues, and they are confident they will catch the killer. But will it be in time to save the next victim?
Gilbert weaves the threads of these two stories together gradually, with a detour into an attempted kidnapping. The ending is tense and well-written. Gilbert is a master craftsman and great one for developing each character with a few strokes. A good read.
September 4, 2024
WE Jones meets Alistair Maclean meets Ruth Rendell with maybe a touch of Michael Campbell . Imagine those authors writing one thriller (!) and the reader will gain a good impression of what The Night of the Twelfth is like without having to read it. The strengths and weaknesses of the first three writers are mixed together to produce a hard to digest, decidedly second rate novel.
There are two stories between the beginning and end of this book. The main story is a murder mystery about a particularly unsavoury serial killer of young boys. The other story relates the attempted kidnap of the son of the Israeli ambassador and the seizing of hostages. The two stories have nothing in common with one another. The Israeli hostage and kidnap story is a subplot without the redeeming feature of a subplot, for it offers no comic relief at all.
Both stories are focussed on the same prep school and take place in the same school term. Plausibility is not Gilbert's strong point.
The highly unlikely Israeli adventure adventure is soon cleared up, and the search for the serial killer (the discovery of a body is at the beginning of The Night of the Twelfth) a totally different story, continues. Both stories have their epicentre in the same school in the same term. The concentration of dramatic events in a private school in just one term is the Michael Campbell contribution. Unfortunately however, Michael Gilbert has none of Michael Campbell's humour but like Michael Campbell but far less convincingly, presents himself as someone who understands the psychology of small boys. His boys are pleasant, intelligent and well aware of what is going on around them. A precocious lot of sixth formers? Not so old at all. I had to double check that this is supposed to be taking place in a prep school, for the boys who are aware of everything around them and worldly wise are 10 or 11 years old. They must have been a bright lot in the schools where Michael Gilbert taught!
I needed to dismiss all thoughts of plausibility to get to the end of this book.
WE Jones is omnipresent in the shape of a teacher who is really an undercover policeman (there are two undercover policemen in the same school!) called Kenneth Manifold. Manifold is virtuous, daring, dedicated, too good to be true, I suspect Manifold is how Michael Gilbert viewed himself, and is like Bulldog Drummond. I'd bet a bag of Sherbert or Mary Anne Creamy Toffees that our Manifold is modelled on Buldog Drummond. Michael Gilbert even seems to share the Bulldog penchant for disguises and the school play is of course (title and disguises!) Twelfth Night. Alistair Maclean is present in the determination to ensure that this book is what used to be called a “pot boiler”, with dedication to action outstripping the potentially but not much explored themes which arise in the course of the adventure(s). In MacLean's Satan Bug for example, the action of the novel completely overcasts the much more interesting potential of the science fiction and dystopian possibilities of gain of function research and biological weapons which could have made of the Satan Bug a much better story than it proved to be. Similarly, in The Night of the Twelfth, the thriller and “whodunnit” element overcasts the touched upon but little explored psychological aspects of the book. Talking of psychology: here is the part which recalls Ruth Rendell this book is “psychology for dummies” making the reader think there is something of deep intelligence going on, when all that is happening is that characters throw off a few more or less acute observations about criminal psychology. Psychology dominates the whodunnit aspect of the work rather than hunting for motive and clever techniques to avoid detection. As in Ruth Rendell, there is a strong element of finger wagging and moralising throughout the book. Michael Gilbert obviously fancies himself as a school master.
The book does have some moments of lively dialogue and the characters are colourful and not the cut-outs who sometimes flit across the stage of the typical British “whodunnit”.
There is one other positive feature of this story which in my view takes out of one star to two stars, almost to three stars. (The Goodread descriptions for the stars are misleading for me. I did NOT find the book ok whatever it means to say a book is "ok" but one star seemed too harsh a judgement) The clue as to the identity of the killer is not only provided but is a fair clue, which an intelligent reader might be able to pick up before the police. I am not bright enough myself and I missed it, but it can be done I think. This is in contrast to the usual oh-so-smart Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and others who lecture not only the protagonists in their “reveal it all” speech at the end but also the reader about everything was simple and elementary for them, when the clues were not proper clues at all, the reader had no chance but is made feeling small and miserable at the end. It was all so elementary, the reader just had to use “the little grey cells” but the reader, like Hastings, like Doctor Watson, is made to feel how superior is the intelligence of the great detective. Michael Gilbert does not do that, because the clue (or maybe other clues which I missed entirely!) is a fair one which the discerning and well awake reader might discover and correctly interpret. If Gilbert does that in his other thrillers (The Night of the Twelfth is the only book by Gilbert which I have read), without the weaknesses of The Night of the Twelfth which I have adumbrated, then his other thrillers may be much better than this one.
According to the Wikipedia entry, Michael Gilbert had an eventful and fruitful life. Apparently, he wrote his novels while commuting to and from London (he practised law in Lincoln's Inn). His varied and interesting life is mirrored in this book in indigestible lumps, but the book can be enjoyed if it is read in the spirit it was written, namely to pass time on commuter journeys in the train.
There are two stories between the beginning and end of this book. The main story is a murder mystery about a particularly unsavoury serial killer of young boys. The other story relates the attempted kidnap of the son of the Israeli ambassador and the seizing of hostages. The two stories have nothing in common with one another. The Israeli hostage and kidnap story is a subplot without the redeeming feature of a subplot, for it offers no comic relief at all.
Both stories are focussed on the same prep school and take place in the same school term. Plausibility is not Gilbert's strong point.
The highly unlikely Israeli adventure adventure is soon cleared up, and the search for the serial killer (the discovery of a body is at the beginning of The Night of the Twelfth) a totally different story, continues. Both stories have their epicentre in the same school in the same term. The concentration of dramatic events in a private school in just one term is the Michael Campbell contribution. Unfortunately however, Michael Gilbert has none of Michael Campbell's humour but like Michael Campbell but far less convincingly, presents himself as someone who understands the psychology of small boys. His boys are pleasant, intelligent and well aware of what is going on around them. A precocious lot of sixth formers? Not so old at all. I had to double check that this is supposed to be taking place in a prep school, for the boys who are aware of everything around them and worldly wise are 10 or 11 years old. They must have been a bright lot in the schools where Michael Gilbert taught!
I needed to dismiss all thoughts of plausibility to get to the end of this book.
WE Jones is omnipresent in the shape of a teacher who is really an undercover policeman (there are two undercover policemen in the same school!) called Kenneth Manifold. Manifold is virtuous, daring, dedicated, too good to be true, I suspect Manifold is how Michael Gilbert viewed himself, and is like Bulldog Drummond. I'd bet a bag of Sherbert or Mary Anne Creamy Toffees that our Manifold is modelled on Buldog Drummond. Michael Gilbert even seems to share the Bulldog penchant for disguises and the school play is of course (title and disguises!) Twelfth Night. Alistair Maclean is present in the determination to ensure that this book is what used to be called a “pot boiler”, with dedication to action outstripping the potentially but not much explored themes which arise in the course of the adventure(s). In MacLean's Satan Bug for example, the action of the novel completely overcasts the much more interesting potential of the science fiction and dystopian possibilities of gain of function research and biological weapons which could have made of the Satan Bug a much better story than it proved to be. Similarly, in The Night of the Twelfth, the thriller and “whodunnit” element overcasts the touched upon but little explored psychological aspects of the book. Talking of psychology: here is the part which recalls Ruth Rendell this book is “psychology for dummies” making the reader think there is something of deep intelligence going on, when all that is happening is that characters throw off a few more or less acute observations about criminal psychology. Psychology dominates the whodunnit aspect of the work rather than hunting for motive and clever techniques to avoid detection. As in Ruth Rendell, there is a strong element of finger wagging and moralising throughout the book. Michael Gilbert obviously fancies himself as a school master.
The book does have some moments of lively dialogue and the characters are colourful and not the cut-outs who sometimes flit across the stage of the typical British “whodunnit”.
There is one other positive feature of this story which in my view takes out of one star to two stars, almost to three stars. (The Goodread descriptions for the stars are misleading for me. I did NOT find the book ok whatever it means to say a book is "ok" but one star seemed too harsh a judgement) The clue as to the identity of the killer is not only provided but is a fair clue, which an intelligent reader might be able to pick up before the police. I am not bright enough myself and I missed it, but it can be done I think. This is in contrast to the usual oh-so-smart Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and others who lecture not only the protagonists in their “reveal it all” speech at the end but also the reader about everything was simple and elementary for them, when the clues were not proper clues at all, the reader had no chance but is made feeling small and miserable at the end. It was all so elementary, the reader just had to use “the little grey cells” but the reader, like Hastings, like Doctor Watson, is made to feel how superior is the intelligence of the great detective. Michael Gilbert does not do that, because the clue (or maybe other clues which I missed entirely!) is a fair one which the discerning and well awake reader might discover and correctly interpret. If Gilbert does that in his other thrillers (The Night of the Twelfth is the only book by Gilbert which I have read), without the weaknesses of The Night of the Twelfth which I have adumbrated, then his other thrillers may be much better than this one.
According to the Wikipedia entry, Michael Gilbert had an eventful and fruitful life. Apparently, he wrote his novels while commuting to and from London (he practised law in Lincoln's Inn). His varied and interesting life is mirrored in this book in indigestible lumps, but the book can be enjoyed if it is read in the spirit it was written, namely to pass time on commuter journeys in the train.
August 10, 2025
A curious book, embodying a transition within the mystery genre. It has BOTH the cozy bloodless pleasures of Agatha Christie AND a chilling encounter with genuine evil that will end up in a show like Broadchurch or Law & Order: SVU. I think they work well together here: the book starts as a cozy with a bit of a warning that darker waters lie ahead, so that when we get to the darker waters they shockingly emerge from innocence. Early on I picked up reading at the head of a chapter and by the end of the chapter had forgotten I was reading a mystery; the boys' school description was so playful and satisfying. The general theme of growing up fits the movement of the plot and the arc of the characters. Book isn't perfect, but as always with Michael Gilbert, is well done.
February 9, 2024
Actually my edition is an e-book, borrowed from the library. The original publication date was 1976, so again, I am tapping into the older authors we don't find on the shelves any more.
A schoolboy goes missing, and is soon found dead, having been tortured. The police mobilisation had an air of realism, including the lazy sergeant, nearing retirement, who fails in his duty. This is not just thrown in for effect, the senior officers discuss the disciplinary action throughout the story.
We cut to a boy's (prep) school, where a new master arrives. Various people were suspicious about him, me included. The boys are adolescents, and seem to be very advanced in their attitudes and worldly knowledge. One of them is the son of an Israeli ambassador, and this introduces an aspect of terrorism into the story. Although I felt that there was a bit of a "boys own" feel to this section, nevertheless it forms a natural part of the progression of the plot.
The police gather evidence from eyewitnesses, although some conflicts exist. Who can be believed? Clues are dished out sparingly - so and so wears steel frame glasses, someone likes acting and dressing up, another likes young boys, but can you rely on them? Yes, there are some nasty subjects addressed - sex, sadism, and homosexuality - in rather a matter-of-fact way. These boys are VERY advanced for that period, sans internet.
There's a helter-skelter ending with a chase, all good thriller material.
This author is a FIND! Despite the slightly "super adolescent" feel at times, this is a complex story, well written without too much bloat. This was not part of a series, so can certainly be read as a stand-alone.
Rating 4.1, and I'll be looking for more from this author.
A schoolboy goes missing, and is soon found dead, having been tortured. The police mobilisation had an air of realism, including the lazy sergeant, nearing retirement, who fails in his duty. This is not just thrown in for effect, the senior officers discuss the disciplinary action throughout the story.
We cut to a boy's (prep) school, where a new master arrives. Various people were suspicious about him, me included. The boys are adolescents, and seem to be very advanced in their attitudes and worldly knowledge. One of them is the son of an Israeli ambassador, and this introduces an aspect of terrorism into the story. Although I felt that there was a bit of a "boys own" feel to this section, nevertheless it forms a natural part of the progression of the plot.
The police gather evidence from eyewitnesses, although some conflicts exist. Who can be believed? Clues are dished out sparingly - so and so wears steel frame glasses, someone likes acting and dressing up, another likes young boys, but can you rely on them? Yes, there are some nasty subjects addressed - sex, sadism, and homosexuality - in rather a matter-of-fact way. These boys are VERY advanced for that period, sans internet.
There's a helter-skelter ending with a chase, all good thriller material.
This author is a FIND! Despite the slightly "super adolescent" feel at times, this is a complex story, well written without too much bloat. This was not part of a series, so can certainly be read as a stand-alone.
Rating 4.1, and I'll be looking for more from this author.
May 7, 2020
This was a fine mystery. I liked the characters and their development. I thought the schoolboys were interesting, sympathetic, and often charming. I admired the detective and thought the police work was sound. The murderer was devious. I thought the only false note was the too-easy pop psychological explanation for the motive for the murders. Sadism is never a comfortable subject regardless of who the victimis.
December 15, 2020
What a find Michael Gilbert has been! I started with Smallbone Deceased--which you see on a lot of best mystery lists--followed by The Night of the Twelfth. Both books feature interesting characters and settings and are concise, well-written, well-plotted, witty, and humorous. I'm currently on my third Gilbert book, The Danger Within (AKA Death in Captivity), which is set in an Italian POW camp. (Gilbert was himself a POW in Italy.)
October 3, 2022
Kept my interest throughout, and I thought the description and characterisation of the boarding school masters was particularly good. But I'm not sure I would recommend this to someone wanting to try Michael Gilbert for the first time. The blending of traditional prep school setting with a storyline from the Arab-Israeli conflict didn't completely work for me. And I wasn't entirely convinced by the motivation of the child killer; it seemed a little bit contrived to me.
May 24, 2023
Michael Gilbert has long been one of my favorites, and this book is a good example of why.
It is well written, well plotted, and well peopled: that is, its large cast contains people in whom we will be interested, even if some are far from likable.
Anyone who doesn't know the works of Michael Gilbert is depriving himself. This might be a good book to start with.
It is well written, well plotted, and well peopled: that is, its large cast contains people in whom we will be interested, even if some are far from likable.
Anyone who doesn't know the works of Michael Gilbert is depriving himself. This might be a good book to start with.
March 3, 2024
Taut stuff but a bit darkish because of its central theme . Gilbert was a wonderful author . But just like FORSYTH ,he complicates things by dropping tons of tertiary characters with names and designation ,in order to make it realistic .
October 26, 2019
This book did not hold my interest, I had to fight to finish it. Not my kind of book I really don't like graphic details of violence. I am a cozy mystery fan.
November 8, 2016
"But these are all lies: men have died from time to time and worms have eaten them, but not for love."
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 4, Scene 1, as quoted by one of The Night of the Twelfth characters).
Although Michael Gilbert's The Night of the Twelfth won the Current Crime's Silver Cup for the best British crime novel of 1976 I do not find it that remarkable. This solid, erudite and well-written novel of suspense cum police procedural is indeed a pleasure to read, yet it is far from exceptional. For instance, in the same year my favorite British mystery author, Nicolas Freeling, published Sabine , also far from a masterpiece but more memorable than The Night.
The night of June 12 (of probably 1975), Brading, West Sussex, south of London. The body of a missing 10-year-old boy has been found and it bears signs of torture. Since this is the third similar murder the police task force, "Operation Huntsman," moves into highest gear. The plot switches to Trenchard House preparatory school, located not that far from the place where the boy's body was found: we meet the headmaster, several teachers, and the school staff who are getting acquainted with a new instructor. Trenchard House is not just an ordinary prep school: many of its pupils are children of important people - one of the kids is the son of an Israeli ambassador. When Jordanian terrorists break into the Israeli Embassy in London and hold three people hostage the police offers protection for the school pupils and the personnel, who are in the middle of rehearsals for the school production of Twelfth Night (note the title). Eventually, as expected, there emerges a connection between the murders and the school and the denouement is precipitated by one of the boys' terrifying experience. In fact, though, the solution of the murders case is found independently by three different people, which is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the novel.
Great characterizations of a very interesting cast of characters make the reader feel these are real people not just devices that move the plot. Particularly the boys, aged about fourteen and younger, are shown vividly and oh-so plausibly, especially when they talk like adults who they believe are not as smart as they are. Yet the plot itself is not that interesting and an impatient reader may easily lose focus. For my taste there is a bit too much of the characters talking about the case: the plot should rather talk through the facts. Only the ending is quite exciting and it includes a sort of car chase, which - in a coincidence that I have found pretty funny - involves members of police force from Crawley, West Sussex, where at that exact time in 1975 Robert Smith himself, the leader of The Cure and focus of the book I have reviewed here just over a week ago Never Enough was attending St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School.
Two and three quarter stars.
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 4, Scene 1, as quoted by one of The Night of the Twelfth characters).
Although Michael Gilbert's The Night of the Twelfth won the Current Crime's Silver Cup for the best British crime novel of 1976 I do not find it that remarkable. This solid, erudite and well-written novel of suspense cum police procedural is indeed a pleasure to read, yet it is far from exceptional. For instance, in the same year my favorite British mystery author, Nicolas Freeling, published Sabine , also far from a masterpiece but more memorable than The Night.
The night of June 12 (of probably 1975), Brading, West Sussex, south of London. The body of a missing 10-year-old boy has been found and it bears signs of torture. Since this is the third similar murder the police task force, "Operation Huntsman," moves into highest gear. The plot switches to Trenchard House preparatory school, located not that far from the place where the boy's body was found: we meet the headmaster, several teachers, and the school staff who are getting acquainted with a new instructor. Trenchard House is not just an ordinary prep school: many of its pupils are children of important people - one of the kids is the son of an Israeli ambassador. When Jordanian terrorists break into the Israeli Embassy in London and hold three people hostage the police offers protection for the school pupils and the personnel, who are in the middle of rehearsals for the school production of Twelfth Night (note the title). Eventually, as expected, there emerges a connection between the murders and the school and the denouement is precipitated by one of the boys' terrifying experience. In fact, though, the solution of the murders case is found independently by three different people, which is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the novel.
Great characterizations of a very interesting cast of characters make the reader feel these are real people not just devices that move the plot. Particularly the boys, aged about fourteen and younger, are shown vividly and oh-so plausibly, especially when they talk like adults who they believe are not as smart as they are. Yet the plot itself is not that interesting and an impatient reader may easily lose focus. For my taste there is a bit too much of the characters talking about the case: the plot should rather talk through the facts. Only the ending is quite exciting and it includes a sort of car chase, which - in a coincidence that I have found pretty funny - involves members of police force from Crawley, West Sussex, where at that exact time in 1975 Robert Smith himself, the leader of The Cure and focus of the book I have reviewed here just over a week ago Never Enough was attending St Wilfrid's Comprehensive School.
Two and three quarter stars.
January 21, 2017
I was a bit uneasy when I saw what the plot was going to be, since I avoid plots with crimes against children as a rule. However, (and I trust this is not a spoiler), there is nothing graphic or uncomfortable in the story, aside from the nature of the crime itself.
It's a good story, well-told, and an effective police procedural. It gets muddled a bit with a side story related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and I can't understand how it fits into the general thrust of the book. Gilbert also does a commendable job describing the staff in a British boarding school which has fifty boys up to the age of 14. It seems to be a relic of the British Empire that there are boarding schools for kids that young, necessitated, I guess, by their parents being sent overseas where suitable education was not available.
Three of the oldest boys are central to the story, and they seemed far more mature than the 14-year-olds I taught years ago, but maybe that's an English thing. But the school and the ordinariness of the staff are both credible.
Oddly, I have encountered the distressing phrase "n in the woodpile" in three of the British mysteries of this period that I have read recently, including this one, which is a reminder of the painful limitations of the British upper classes (and our own problems). On the other hand, this story is refreshingly free of the anti-Semitism which can also often be found in this genre. There is ample opportunity for it, since one of the boys is the son of the Israeli ambassador to England, and it's a relief that he is an exemplary boy and the most complete character among the students at the school.
Be warned -- there is a several page description of a cricket match which utterly mystified me. (I've never understood that sport).
All in all, this more than forty-year-old story holds up quite well and is a pretty good read.
It's a good story, well-told, and an effective police procedural. It gets muddled a bit with a side story related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and I can't understand how it fits into the general thrust of the book. Gilbert also does a commendable job describing the staff in a British boarding school which has fifty boys up to the age of 14. It seems to be a relic of the British Empire that there are boarding schools for kids that young, necessitated, I guess, by their parents being sent overseas where suitable education was not available.
Three of the oldest boys are central to the story, and they seemed far more mature than the 14-year-olds I taught years ago, but maybe that's an English thing. But the school and the ordinariness of the staff are both credible.
Oddly, I have encountered the distressing phrase "n in the woodpile" in three of the British mysteries of this period that I have read recently, including this one, which is a reminder of the painful limitations of the British upper classes (and our own problems). On the other hand, this story is refreshingly free of the anti-Semitism which can also often be found in this genre. There is ample opportunity for it, since one of the boys is the son of the Israeli ambassador to England, and it's a relief that he is an exemplary boy and the most complete character among the students at the school.
Be warned -- there is a several page description of a cricket match which utterly mystified me. (I've never understood that sport).
All in all, this more than forty-year-old story holds up quite well and is a pretty good read.
December 29, 2013
This book is an odd combination of police procedural and public school story. Someone has been kidnapping and killing young boys. After the third victim, a dragnet narrowly misses catching the killer. So the police set about the dreary task of sifting through what they know and what they think, praying that they'll catch the killer before another death.
At around the same time, teacher Peter Manifold joins the staff at a public boarding school for the well-to-do. He's a bit more abrupt and direct than the usual teacher, but he's quite good with the boys and very intelligent. One of the more outstanding students is the son of the Israeli ambassador, and tension with Middle Eastern terrorists cause concern for his safety (the novel was written in the middle 1970s).
Gilbert expertly handles a large cast of characters, changing the point of view in nearly every scene. A lesser writer might have botched this difficult task but Gilbert does a good job at keeping his large cast straight in the reader's mind. In addition the characters are always realistic and believable.
A very enjoyable book from an excellent writer.
At around the same time, teacher Peter Manifold joins the staff at a public boarding school for the well-to-do. He's a bit more abrupt and direct than the usual teacher, but he's quite good with the boys and very intelligent. One of the more outstanding students is the son of the Israeli ambassador, and tension with Middle Eastern terrorists cause concern for his safety (the novel was written in the middle 1970s).
Gilbert expertly handles a large cast of characters, changing the point of view in nearly every scene. A lesser writer might have botched this difficult task but Gilbert does a good job at keeping his large cast straight in the reader's mind. In addition the characters are always realistic and believable.
A very enjoyable book from an excellent writer.
December 1, 2010
Written in 1976 (or there about) and still enjoyable. I liked it well enough to get two more of his books from the library.
March 23, 2014
This is one of Gilbert's best, a taut thriller set in a boy's school in the British countryside, with loads of suspense and a very exciting climax.
March 18, 2012
Very well done. Very British, well written - nicely crafted.
October 24, 2015
The was the last book to complete my 2015 reading challenge (52 books!). It took me FOREVER. I've always thought I was something of an anglophile, but this book proved me WRONG.
April 7, 2011
A good read, it went whizzing by in no time.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews