Joanne Harris

a novel

Gentlemen and players

Sarah Sammis

If I had track the moves in the book like a chess game, I would have guessed the murderer's identity. In all honesty, I'm glad I didn't because I enjoyed the final confrontation all the more. The book like many chess games starts out ponderous. The pieces are set up and the characters introduced. Pay attention to Staitley's description of his colleagues. It is the only time they will all be presented at once. From there the play flips between the black and white pieces, black represented by Staitley and the white by the murderer.

To confuse things further, there is a replay of a previous game, a series of events over the course of an academic year where the murderer falls in love with the school. It is the love of the school that motivates the murderer to plot and scheme. At first these flash backs seem confusing but they do help to develop the murderer as a character and begin to play out almost as a juvenile Mr. Ripley plot.

Emma Jacqueline

A 3.5 rounded up to 4 because I was constantly excited to come back to this book, even when I saw the ending coming from about ten pages in. That's half on me—I can't resist trying to guess a twist—but I think if Harris really wanted this to be more of a thriller / mystery, she needed more red herrings. But I think mystery is ultimately secondary in Gentlemen and Players. What Harris does incredibly well is crafting a remarkable sense of place and character. As frustrated as I could be with Mr. Straitley, he was a fantastic and believable character, as was the dual narrator. The examination of schooling as an institution that eats alive teachers and students alike was so well done and made up for almost all of the issues I had with the plotting.

Gentlemen and Players

Chris Aldrich

This was an interesting and worthwhile read, but I wasn't impressed with the crisscrossing of the two first person stories. Perhaps it was the Kindle version's fault, but it wasn't terrifically fun trying to discern who was talking at each break.

The plot twist at the end was interesting, but felt a bit fake because of the realities of telling the story in novel form. I don't think this would have worked quite as well in movie form. The ultimate resolution could have been a bit more satisfying.

The setting and characters really made the story and the plot moved along fairly well though the pace could have been more brisk. The author could have done a bit better at introducing such a large number of characters.

Eugenia Andino

En el subgénero tan inglés de "infiltrados en la clase alta desde la obrera", tipo Brideshead o The go-between, una novela de misterio con mucha intriga y sorpresas.

Gentlemen and players a novel

Reviews