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O GENTLE DEATH by Janet Neel St. Martin's Minotaur, August 2000 $22.95 ISBN: 0312289521

Francesca Wilson is from a family of musicians, is a teacher of music herself, and has taken various teenage musicians under her wing from time to time. She is married to Detective Chief Superintendent John McLeish who suffers these young musicians usually quite happily. Now, however, when Francesca is eight months pregnant he is concerned that they are draining her.

Her teenage relative and gifted violinist Jamie attends Farraday Trust School, a remarkable institution that encourages creativity as well as scholarship. His close friends are Giles Quentin, a countertenor of amazing ability; Damien Fay; and Catriona Roberts, an unhappy child if ever there was one. These four are in the Upper Sixth, ready to graduate at the end of term.

So we have the setting in the highly charged and tense atmosphere of school just before the A level exams which will determine the future for all of these young people. We have many very creative kids who often are rather dramatic and emotional. It should come as no surprise that tragedy will eventually ensue. And when it does it is DCS McLeishıs job to sort it all out.

This is less a mystery than a study of people and how they react to triumph and tragedy. The characters are well drawn, at least the teenagers are. They are believable and act in ways we might expect highly gifted teens to behave. Their parents are perhaps a little more stereotypical. And there are enough characters -- I would have liked a cast list in the beginning with relationships to tell them apart.

This is English story-telling at its finest. That said, it seems to me that there is a glass wall, so to speak, between the reader and the characters. We do not get as involved in their lives as we might; we do not empathize quite as much. It is as though we can stand off and see the broader picture rather than the more personal one.

The identity of the murderer, while revealed at the end of the book, is perhaps much less important than the end of term, the A level exams, the final program that these young people put on, and the danger from another person entirely to Francesca and Jamie. But it is a fascinating book and quite enjoyable to read. I got caught up in the lives of these four young people and savored their joys and triumphs.

Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, December 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)

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