Elizabeth George's Well-Schooled In Murder

Well-schooled in Murder

Well-schooled in murder is a crime novel written by Elizabeth George. The novel is a crime novel because there is a mystery and the investigation of the mystery. Crime novels are vey popular because of the always exiting composition. The reader is therefore very curious of finding the mystery solution. Elizabeth George is oddly an American author, which is odd because of the places all her stories and crime scenes take place. They take place in British societies. This particular novel is one her first published books.

At an independent school like Repton, they are very well taught. All the teachers are the best of the best. That would give all the pupils a brighter future with bigger chances of getting success and an exiting career. That is what the title is picturing. Well-schooled draws the line to the boarding school and the rest of the title creates a question for the reader. Is it a murder or is it just a teenage runaway?
Inspector Lynley is the main character of this story.
In this story Lynley gets the case of a missing boy from a Private boarding school in the UK. Repton is the private school the boy attended, he is called by the name, Matthew Whateley. When Inspector Lynley went to exactly that boarding school. By that he knew all the norms, traditions and the atmosphere. The short part that I read of the novel, Lynley and his partner Barbara Havers has just arrived at the school to interrogate the friends of Matthew. The boys were the boys of the same dormitory as the missing boy. An older boy called Chas Quilter escorted them to the room were the interrogation would happen. Chas Quilter was one of the independent schools prefects, which mean that he was in charge of a group of the younger students. Chas was in charge of the dormitory where Matthew
lived. At first friends, family and the school was not afraid of where he was, because he had an exeat. Which imply that he had the permission to leave school grounds, without his parent’s approval. Matthew was a boy of decency and he kept himself out of the others business’. The traditions and happenings on the school, the socially events he did not attend. Under the interrogation the boys, Wedge, Arlens and Smythe Andrews, told that Matthew was not interested at all in attending the thing. They told that the only thing they knew about Matthew’s parents was that they were in the working middle class. While their own families was in the upper class. That was the reason why Matthew did not want to attend the socializations on the school, they thought. Matthews’s dormitory friends also mention that he knew a girl called Jean, and that he sometimes visited her. The boys do not tell Inspector Lynley how he knows her. When Lynley interviewed Matthew Whateley’s parents, they di not believe that he had ran away from school, he must have had to go somewhere. Because he was a very decent and contentious boy, he would not run away with out a reason. The point of view in this crime novel, I think is when the investigation grew enters Matthew’s room and therefore see all of his hobbies and his background. This was were they could not stop and go back, now they had entered Matthews life.

Thomas Lynley, the inspector of this crime novel, was as written earlier a previous student on the boarding school. He comes from the upper class, which means that he understands the boys of the school situations and what pressure is upon them from home. He knows what it is like to attend a boarding school and how your parents act if you get in trouble when they have paid for you to go on an expensive school. Lynley is also a part of the old boys network, which is a social and business-minded gathering of previous pupils on the boarding school. This involve that he since he left the school, knows what changes and corrections the schools have made over the years. It also means that he still is in contact with his former fellow students. He still knows a big part of the staff from his own time at the school, therefore he knows the teachers course of action and whom that could know something important about the case. Besides this he is very confident, critical and he knows that he is an authority. When he talked to the boys of Matthews’s dormitory, every one of them was staring at their feet while they were speaking. Instead of telling them to calm down he omit saying anything.

Matthew Whateley is not a typical boarding school student; he comes from the working class. His parents have to sacrifice a lot of money for him to go to the school. Therefore he has another view of money and its worth. He took the school seriously, that why he had the exeat, and that is why he did not have any interest in the social life on the school. He knew that the other pupils see him differently because his parents situation. To sum up, he was socially isolated. Not because he did not like the other students, but because he felt that when his parents gave up their little money for his future. And then the only way for him to thank them was to take the school rules and norms seriously. When Lynley is investigating the case and talking to the boys of Matthew’s dormitory, they mention that Matthew had a passion for trains. This could be a sign of his maybe too fast leave from the home of his childhood. He has never left this state of mind and therefore he keeps the interest for trains. Why Matthew ran away or died we do not know, but he was in a difficult place. Everyone wants to have a friend, but if the friends the world have to offer is prejudice, you would have to find one in another place. Maybe that is why he visited this Jean often.

Chas Quilter was as written, a school prefect and in charge of the dormitory where Matthew lived. He looks like an authority and he might enjoy this kind of attention instead of just being a fellow student. Before he did not have the power to help or the power to rule over others pupils. He is now an important person on the school, and younger students look up to him. Wehge is a very careful and insecure thirteen old boy, he looks down upon his feet, instead of talking to Lynley’s face when he questions them. But when the prefect leaves the room, he looks up and is actually the most helpful of the boys to Lynley. Andrews also called Smythe Andrews posses the softness of childhood, he is very careful like his friend Wehge. It is like his anxious makes him forget the reason why he is being interrogated that he becomes unwilling to talk and nervous.
Arlens is like the other two boys at thirteen, insecure and careful. I think that they become this careful of being a student on a boarding school. They have to learn to walk around carefully and not step on anyone.

The themes of this novel is friendship, it underlines how important a friendship can be, if nobody knows you, nobody can help you. Another theme is expectations; because of the expectations a teenager gets from all kinds of sides, the socializing, the parents, the girlfriend. And then you have to fit in to all of those expectations. A final theme is authority, because of how it can affect little boys like Andrews and Wehge, the authority can scare quite a lot and that is why they did not at first help with the investigations of the missing Matthew.

Elizabeth George wanted the reader to realize the importance of friendship. The Author also has a really bad attitude against boarding schools and the boy’s ways to behave. Matthew was a loner and that I think is one of the reasons he died or ran away. Nobody would care either way.