I often find that men like you underestimate women like me. I have committed two murders, one a crime of passion, the other, a crime of convenience. I am barely forty years old, and finally I am starting to reap the harvest my ambitions have sown. This is my time.' --- At St Oswald's School, the ground is shifting beneath the old guards' feet. Not only are the doors opening for the first time ever to female students, but there is also a new headmistress taking up the reins. Miss Malone isn't just here to modernise the school, or whip the staff into shape, or make her mark. She's here for vengeance... --- Praise for Joanne Harris's previous books set in the St Oswald's world - which all read as standalone thrillers: 'A masterpiece of misdirection' Val McDermid 'Delivers an almighty twist . . . brilliantly atmospheric ' The Times 'Crime novel or literary novel? Categories really don't matter, readers will find themselves comprehensively gripped' Independent '[A] gripping psychological thriller . . . Harris is one of our most accomplished novelists' Daily Express 'Marvellously mischievous' Good Housekeeping 'A classic whodunnit with the characters carefully crafted and the tension at a knife edge' Sunday Express '[A] delicious black comedy' Daily Mail