Blood Month

Vaughan (The Midnight Ghost) has penned a low-key procedural set in 1971 that is brisk and to the point, but only mildly surprising. Rhian Evans gets her first job after graduating from college teaching history at posh Llanover Grange, a Welsh boarding school. Things do not go well. She becomes totally besotted with a handsome 15-year-old student, David Wyn-Williams, and also has an affair with an unstable older student, Gareth Lewis. And she discovers the body of the headmaster, Rev. John Griffiths, bludgeoned and drowned in the school’s locker room. Chief Insp. Tom Llewellyn and his capable sergeant, Jack Jones, conduct a series of interviews with the shocked yet recalcitrant faculty and staff. Though no one is eager to disclose any potentially damaging information, Llewellyn’s combination of charm and cunning gradually ferrets out evidence that places Rhian under suspicion. Some sharply delineated characters emerge, but their impact is blunted by the story’s overall blandness. (Nov.)