A Peter Maxwell mystery
1 primary work • 4 total works
Book 12
With girlfriend DS Jacquie Carpenter back at investigating and little son, Nolan, a fast-growing six months, Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell, Head of Sixth Form at Leighford High, hires an au pair, Juanita Reyes. The summer slowly unfolds in sleepy seaside Leighford, and Juanita seems perfect, doting on the baby and working hard to improve her English. Then, she goes missing. And so does Rodrigo Mendoza, a Spanish teacher at a neighboring school. When Rodrigo's body is found in a hurriedly dug grave, Maxwell rushes to Juanita's defence as the spotlight of suspicion descends upon her. But then a second corpse appears . . .
The latest in the popular "Peter 'Mad' Maxwell" series. Deena Harrison was one of Leighford High School's 'characters'. She set fire to the toilet block when she was eleven, and threw Ollie Wendell down the science lab stairs soon after her twelfth birthday. But she had the voice of an angel and could act the skin off a rice pudding, so Mr Diamond, the Headteacher, invoked all sorts of inclusion clauses and EU Equal Opportunities initiatives to keep her on. The autumn she came down from Oxford, there was something of a crisis in the Drama department at Leighford High. Mrs Carmichael was in danger of losing her baby and the Little Shop of Horrors was in danger of closing down. So Deena came back - just to help out. And people started dying. Oh, just tragic accidents of course - loose cables, carelessly placed ladders. Just minor health and safety issues, really. Somebody was killing the cast, and it wasn't Audrey II, the man-eating plant. DCI Henry Hall got to know the Arquebus Theatre quite well that summer. With his favourite DS, Jacquie Carpenter, expecting her own baby, and with murder treading the boards, Hall had his hands full.
Especially when Deena's old Head of Sixth Form stumbled into the spotlight. You see, Deena's old Head of Sixth Form had a habit of solving murders...Mad Max is on his bike.
Especially when Deena's old Head of Sixth Form stumbled into the spotlight. You see, Deena's old Head of Sixth Form had a habit of solving murders...Mad Max is on his bike.
There comes a time in every teacher's life when he must face his Nemesis - the four-yearly Ofsted Inspection. The team arrives at Leighford High one glorious summer and proceeds to stick its collective nose into various classrooms. The immediate problem of Head of Sixth Form, Peter Maxwell, is the attractive and vivacious Sally Meninger, a Humanities expert who proceeds to cast aspersions on Maxwell's metier as a teacher. Out on the town one night to relieve the tension, the Head of Sixth Form finds her in an intimate situation with her fellow Inspector, Alan Whiting. On the third day, with the atmosphere at the High School decidedly fraught, Whiting is found stabbed to death in the office set aside for the Inspection team. The police are called in and Maxwell cannot help but notice that Sally is not as distraught at Whiting's death as might be expected. It emerges that her private life is somewhat irregular - a view reinforced when Maxwell catches her in flagrante with his Headmaster, James Diamond. Events move quickly and Diamond is arrested on suspicion of the murder of Whiting But is it that simple? Aided by his inside informant, lover DS Jacquie Carpenter, Maxwell sets out to prove that his colleague is innocent. And the only way to do it is to take on the Inspectors one by one...
When Peter Maxwell attends a school reunion of the class of '65, all is not as it seems among his old chums. They are career men, family men - but the years have taken their toll, and the seething tensions of the school years surface in unlikely ways. At the end of the reunion weekend, a man is dead, hanging from the bell rope of the old school. When a second death occurs, Maxwell finds himself in the midst of a murder investigation. What is the secret that has been lurking under Maxwell's nose all these years - and could he be on the murderer's list for killing No. 3?