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A Narrow Door

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A Narrow Door

By: Joanne Harris
Narrated by: Alex Kingston, Steven Pacey
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Now I'm in charge, the gates are my gates. The rules are my rules.

It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls.

Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely 40, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered. 

But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She'll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. 

After all...you can't keep a good woman down.

©2021 Joanne M Harris (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group Family Life Genre Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Exciting Scary
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Critic reviews

"A dark world of emotional complexity and betrayal, where twist follows twist and nothing is what it seems. A masterful narrative voice, and a compulsive thriller from one of our greatest writers. I absolutely loved it." (Alex Michaelides, number one best-selling author of The Silent Patient)

"A psychological thriller you can't put down and an antiheroine you won't forget." (Harlan Coben)

"A dark and richly enjoyable novel that already feels like a classic." (Elly Griffiths)

"A dark world of emotional complexity and betrayal, where twist follows twist and nothing is what it seems." (Alex Michaelides)
All stars
Most relevant
Terrific and gripping ending to a wonderful trilogy. Two perfectly matched and sympathetic adversaries fight for the soul of a school and for much more besides. There are so many surprising sub- plots, agreeable come-uppances, red herrings, witty one- liners and plausible motives for murder that I had two almost sleepless nights listening to this book in bed and dreaming about some of the action of the book. Read this trilogy!

FORSAN ET HAEC OLIM MEMINISSE IUVABIT

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Downloaded this as I like Joanne Harris gentlemen and players and a different class both set in a Yorkshire grammar school
How wonderful to find the third in the trilogy of St Oswalds old friends like Roy Straightly la Buckfast
Alan Jones et al lovingly crafted into this new tome. I just lapped it up and was sorry for it to end

Like an old friend dropping in

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Kept me gripped all the way through. Thoroughly enjoyed it . Intriguing, sinister and well worth listening to.

Excellent

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Enjoyed this, 1st time reading/listening to a Joanne Harris novel, quite a few twists

Enjoyable mystery.

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It was trepidation I started this book after reading the negative reviews, however I found their complaints about the story and characters unfounded in my opinion. One person felt the accents were wrong for a public school failing to realise that in a Yorkshire colliery town, for a scholarship pupil, the accents were spot on.
Someone else felt the plot lines were far fetched. Find for me it was the perfect realisation of an adult understanding her 5 year old self and finding the truth behind her nightmares.
Someone else felt the emphasis on the journey of feminism was heavy handed with too much patriarchy bashing. Either they are male or young females, either way without the lived experience of having to fight the way the women in the 80s had to. Storming entrenched citadels of patriarchy in the 80s following on from those who came before.
As women in 2022 we still don’t have a level playing field and true equality with our male counterparts. I recognised much of the fight Rebecca had.
Finally someone claimed it was repetitive and long winded. Again they seem to fail to realise how interpreting the memories of a young child as an adult works.
The twists and turns were interesting. Will I be reading the previous books based in St Oswald’s? Yes, I want to find out what brought us to Rebecca as “headmaster” as it was alluded to in this book.

Enjoyable book

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