A Pen Dipped in Poison

Take a break Miss Marple, this is crime fiction with three main characters who are all striving for your prowess and style. A Pen Dipped in Poison is very ‘cosy crime’, but with an underlying edge of pure evil that raises the possibility of violence, and even death, page after page.

The ‘poison’ here is better described as ‘mildly dyspeptic’ in contents, but the bold capitals are not dismissed or chalked off and away by recipients. The deeply disturbing personal, if vague, letters could have catastrophic consequences, possibly even poison.

The setting is a school in Yorkshire where various staff members – there’s quite a few of them – receive anonymous letters detailing some quite unpleasant comments. But these are not handed directly to the recipients; they’re left in places where others will find them and read them.

Enter the cogitations of three retired schoolteachers. Liz, Pat and Thelma are intrigued and set out on the journey to unraveling the mystery.

There are villains almost from the outset. This is an author who questions the way a traditional school has been modernised by being absorbed into a ‘Lodestone Academy’ which is led by an ‘Executive Head’. That leader has, with other Academy administrators, turned St Barnabus Primary School into an educational academy, which operates more like a business than a school.

Most characters are teachers and, as the author is also in that profession, they are described in details that bring the school environment and atmosphere to life. That includes conversations that have no consequence from people who are keen to escape the classroom and the additional pressure of meeting targets daily by banter. Behind these chats are so many lie real anxieties, which the author goes on to explain the speakers’ true emotions, almost like a commentator.

A Pen Dipped in Poison is J. M. Hall’s second cosy crime novel, following, and frequently referring to, his debut, A Spoonful of Murder.