We start with a Pawn. A Pawn who has discovered - if they've learned anything in the last fifteen years - that murder is no big deal. It's just a boundary, like all those others which you're not allowed to cross because of the NO TRESPASSERS sign just beyond them. We start with a child who, because they did not know by whose order they were not to trespass, decided to put it to the test.

The child is "the Porter's kid". The Porter of St Oswald's Grammar School for Boys. But of course...a porter is just a porter...and a porter's kid doesn't go to the posh school, no matter the connection. They are destined for Sunnybank Park Comp. Thus are the lines drawn: the lines for a match to be played out some thirty years later.

The title of Joanne Harris' latest offering is drawn from cricket. For readers not familiar with the expression, it relates to the very early days of professional cricketers, when, really, it wasn't the done thing to be paid for playing! For a while in top flight cricket there was this discrepancy between amateurs playing for the love of the game and for free (gentlemen) and those playing probably also for the love of the game but getting paid for it (players). Clearly the former looked down upon the latter. It's one of those end of empire expressions that sums up a certain snippet of the essence of Englishness as it was then...and as it may still be. The book itself rests upon the very English notion of "cricket" -the idea, not just the game - meaning "by the book", fair, gentlemanly, honourable. "That's just NOT cricket!" we say, of cheating in any sport, or beyond. Therein lies the thread of this tale. It is all a question of fairness, and honour, and standards. It is also a portrait of the decline in all of those things.

Beyond the title, however, and back at our pawn...the other analogies are blatantly chess. The story is about a game. There is nothing subtle in this. The chapters are grouped into sections headed: Pawn, King, Knight, En Passant, Check, Bishop, Queen & Mate. Characters too are handed the roles - or at least the names - Knight, Bishop, Queenie. Whether they play by the rules of course is another matter.

So, we start with a pawn. But of course, you cannot start a game with merely the pawn...there must also be a King to be taken, and a whole supporting cast. So we also start with a King: a schoolmaster, Roy Straitley, Classics, approaching 65 and one of the old school in every sense.

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