LemuriaBooks

While I'm not a particular fan of mysteries I found GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS by Joanne Harris, the author of CHOCOLAT, to be great escapist fare. In this highly entertaining work, Ms. Harris manages to switch genres with great ease and even greater success.
Set in an old line English prep school called St. Oswald's Grammar School, the entire story is told through the voices of two characters. The first, an anonymous narrator, who is obviously a sociopath, has returned to St. Oswald's as a teacher determined to wreak havoc on the institution for what he perceives as past betrayals. His identity is revealed only at the end of the book. The other protangonist is a classics professor named Professor Straitley, a delightful curmudgeon with a wry sense of humor and a grudge against modernity in general and computers, e-mails and the like in particular. Professor Straitley is an unlikely hero, but as an intensely loyal and dedicated teacher who loves the school he presents the major obstacle to the villain's ultimate goal--the destruction of St. Oswald's.
Their contest of wits is played out using the framework of a chess game as its motif with each chapter alternating between the viewpoint of the villain, signified by the imprint of a black pawn at the beginning of his chapter and that of the professor, designated by the imprint of the white knight at the beginning of his.
In the early chapters, the professor is an unwitting player, only aware that there are nefarious events taking place at his beloved St. Oswald's. But as the game progresses he is the only one who recognizes the danger and is able to maneuver to stop the mayhem. (Someone pointed out after I had read the book that only the knight can move both ways on a chess board)
Although I don't know much about chess, one doesn't need to in order to thoroughly enjoy the book. Despite the implausibilites in the story---and there are a number--the intricate plotting, smart pacing and the many twists and turns keep the reader turning the pages until the last deliciously clever twist--a twist I realized had been hinted at from the beginning---hidden in plain sight as it were.