A student takes a crash course in murder in this mystery from the Edgar Award–winning author who wrote the Peter Duluth series as Patrick Quentin. Patrick Quentin, best known for the Peter Duluth puzzle mysteries, also penned outstanding detective novels from the 1930s through the 1960s under other pseudonyms, including Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. Anthony Boucher wrote: “Quentin is particularly noted for the enviable polish and grace which make him one of the leading American fabricants of the murderous comedy of manners; but this surface smoothness conceals intricate and meticulous plot construction as faultless as that of Agatha Christie.” As a young Yankee at an elite English learning institution, Hilary Fenton has managed to navigate the solemn traditions and bizarre rituals of the school without going completely batty. Yet his stoic exterior crumbles when he sees the girl of his dreams and is immediately besotted. Of course, that’s when the trouble starts. After a fellow student begs him to mail an important letter for him, Hilary discovers the lad dead that night by apparent suicide. But something in his gut tells Hilary that it was murder. Worse, he thinks his dream girl might somehow be involved. Unable to let the incident go—and eager to learn more about the mysterious girl—Hilary decides to meddle in the investigation. Then, yet another killing occurs, followed by an attempted poisoning of Hilary’s would-be girlfriend. Someone is trying to cover up one killing with another. Now it’s up to Hilary to put the pieces of the puzzle together before his own education gets cut brutally short.
