O Gentle Death
Francesca Wilson's seventh appearance (after 1998's To Die For)  is certainly a lucky one for British author Neel. The end of  term at Faraday Trust school in Dorset brings not only the usual  final exams and a music recital in London but also the  unexpected resignation of the headmaster and the death of a  troubled student, Catriona Roberts. Rejected by the boy she has  thrown herself at and feeling rejected by both of her divorced  and remarried parents, Catriona had made abortive, halfhearted  attempts at suicide. Though at first it seems as if she's  finally succeeded, her death turns out to be murder. Among those  with motive and opportunity are parents, stepparents, teachers  and fellow students. Broken families and extended families,  including his own, preoccupy Det. Chief Supt. John McLeish,  Francesca's husband, as he leads the careful police work that  untangles the relationships of the many suspects and a puzzle  that will keep readers guessing to the last. The author adroitly  renders the adolescent students (fragile, precocious, bumbling,  cocky) and is no less successful in depicting the members of the  teaching staff (caring, fallible, conniving, confused). Neel's  publishing pace of a book every two or three years may seem slow  in a genre where annual volumes are the rule, but her subtle  characterizations and burnished prose justify the wait. (Sept.  17) FYI: Neel has won the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasy  Prize.Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.