Maxwell's Mask

They say that school days are the best days of your life. But for some, school can be murder.Deena Harrison was one of Leighford High School’s ‘characters’. She set fire to the toilet block when she was eleven, and threw Ollie Wendell down the science lab stairs soon after her twelfth birthday. But she had the voice of an angel and could act the skin off of a rice pudding, so Mr. Diamond, the headteacher, invoked all sorts of inclusion clauses to keep her on.The autumn she comes down from Oxford, there is something of a crisis in the drama department at Leighford High. Mrs. Carmichael is in danger of losing her baby and the Little Shop of Horrors is in danger of closing down. So Deena comes back – just to help out. And people start dying.DCI Henry Hall is called in to see what is happening. With his favourite DS, Jacquie Carpenter, expecting her own baby, and with murder treading the boards, Hall has his hands full.‘An impressive mix of humour, sadness and suspense, this is gripping to the very end’ - Mail on Sunday‘Trow’s skill at spinning mysteries a twist further than expected keeps him at the top of the form’ - Sunday Telegraph‘No one, no one at all, writes quite like Trow – it’s almost impossible to second guess him, so top marks for the scholarly sleuth’ - Yorkshire Post‘Trow manages to be funny, tragic and puzzling, which isn’t an easy trick to pull off’ - Manchester Evening News‘Plenty of humour as well as a rollicking good story’ - Oxford TimesM. J. Trow is a retired history teacher who has also been a crime writer for many years. Originally from Rhondda in South Wales, he claims to be the only Welshman who cannot sing or play rugby. His interests include collecting militaria, films, the supernatural and true crime. The author of the Inspector Sholto Lestrade series and several non-fiction books, and as the co-author (with is wife) of the Kit Marlowe books, Maxwell’s Mask is the eleventh novel featuring Peter ‘Mad Max’ Maxwell.