As August nears to a close, the schools are opening up again. The carefree summer is done, ushering in a time of focus and responsibility.
For many people, attending school is, figuratively at least, absolute murder. But when it comes to crime fiction, that can also literally true.
Here are eight delightful back to school mystery books to keep you sharp!
Cat Among the Pigeons
The Queen of Crime’s ace sleuth, Hercule Poirot, is called in to investigate the shooting of a popular games teacher at a posh girl’s boarding school in this 1959 mystery.
It seems that the killing must have something to do with rivalries in the school staff room, but Poirot soon starts to wonder if it may be connected with something altogether less expected: international espionage and a revolution in a faraway land.
Christie is right at home in an environment that appears neat and cozy, but is actually seething with resentment and potential violence, while the school makes a good substitute for the traditional country house.
Murder in the Basement
Another mystery master from The Golden Age, Berkeley’s top-notch whodunnit (first published in 1932) sees his regular sleuth, Chief Inspector Moresby, called in when the body of an unknown woman is found buried in the cellar of a house.
It soon becomes apparent that the woman worked at a nearby boarding school for boys. Intriguingly, Moresby’s best pal, Roger Sherringham, was once a teacher at the school, and has written an autobiographical novel about his time there.
Could the solution to the murder and the identity of the corpse be found in Sherringham’s book?
An intriguing “novel within a novel” plot and a suitably nasty cast of staff and pupils mark this out as one of Berkeley’s best.
Poison for Teacher
Pioneering British LGBTQ+ journalist and broadcaster Nancy Spain lived a colorful life (amongst other things, having a child after a brief fling with the husband of mystery writer Margery Allingham). Most notably, however, she wrote a series of best-selling crime novels.
In this one from 1949, her regular detective, former-dancing girl Miriam Birdseye, and her sidekick, Russian ballerina Natasha DuVivien, are called in to investigate the slaying of a teacher at a boarding school for young ladies.
The setting is based on Spain’s Alma Mater, the super posh Roedean College. Filled with knowing jokes, it’s a minor masterpiece that has recently been reissued by Virago Modern Classics.
Murder Is Academic
Academic Christine Poulson’s first foray into mystery writing is set on familiar turf—a college at Cambridge, one of the UK’s elite universities.
Professor Casandra James is appointed as the new head of English after the incumbent’s untimely death. She finds a department in disarray, staffed by people who don’t seem much interested in teaching, or anything else for that matter.
James’ attempts to sharpen the place up and secure vital government funding are quickly derailed, however, when she discovers that her predecessor’s death was no accident.
Soon there are more late lecturers than late student essays, and James is being menaced by a ruthless killer.
The Bitterest Pill
A veteran author of hard-boiled crime, Reed Farrel Coleman took over writing mysteries featuring small town cop Jesse Stone after the death of the character’s creator, Robert B. Parker, in 2010. The Stone novels are filled with smart wisecracks and offbeat characters, and this one is no exception.
The death of a popular high school cheerleader from a heroin overdose sees the Police Chief of Paradise, Massachusetts looking into a local opioid epidemic which seems to have its epicenter at the school.
With parents apparently unwilling to confront the reality of what is happening and the school’s teenage cliques refusing to speak, Stone battles to shut down the drug ring before it brings more tragedy to his little community.
The Pale Blue Eye
The apparently ritualistic murder of cadets at West Point Academy in the snowy winter of 1830 sees veteran investigator Augustus Landor teaming up with a teenage Edgar Allen Poe (who attended West Point briefly before his expulsion) to try to find the killer or killers.
The mismatched pair must apprehend them before they can strike again and ruin the reputation of the recently established military school.
The Pale Blue Eye is a satisfyingly grisly school mystery that will delight fans of Poe through its knowing allusions to many of his greatest stories.
Confessions
Set in a mundane and distinctly average Japanese middle school, Minato’s 2008 debut novel centers on a science teacher who plots revenge on two pupils she blames for the death of her four-year-old daughter.
Like the classic Akira Kurosawa movie Rashomon, the story is told from multiple points of view, creating a suspenseful narrative that’s full of unexpected twists and turns.
Confessions was a runaway success in Japan, selling three million copies. It’s easy to see why.
Quiet as a Nun
British author Antonia Fraser is better known for her non-fiction historical biographies, but she also wrote a highly successful series of mysteries featuring inquisitive TV journalist Jemima Shore.
In this one, the series opener from 1977, the sharp-witted Shore returns to her old convent boarding school to investigate the death of a former schoolmate, a wealthy heiress who became a nun.
The reporter’s poking around in the classrooms and dormitories soon reveals some very dark secrets. But what does it all have to do with the spectral “Black Nun” whose ghostly appearance—the school pupils assure her—is a warning of an impending death?
Featured image: Heather Green/Unsplash
