Anyone recognise this book please?

[Fuschiapink123]

Set in northern boys boarding school in ?80's. Quite gritty about boy stuff. Clever lad shows off to teacher with an essay and is put down by teacher. Teacher murdered on field trip. One of the group of boys who knew about murder is revisited in later part of book and he has become very fat and reclusive.
I think the words strange or monstrous in the title but googled and found nothing :/
Published about 2005

It's not The Secret History by Donna Tartt, is it?

I thought that at first Blether. But SH is set in USA and its Bunny the student who is murdered rather than a teacher.

Does sound familiar though....

No but I love the secret history! This is def by a man and set in England

It sounds a lot like Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (by far her best book btw, better than all the Chocolat series)

Loved that bitter. Brilliant twist at the end.

This is the blurb for Gentleman and Players:

At St Oswald's, a long-established boys' grammar school in the north of England, a new year has just begun. For the staff and boys of the school, a wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and Information Technology rule the world; and Roy Straitley, the eccentric veteran Latin master, is finally - reluctantly - contemplating retirement.

But beneath the little rivalries, petty disputes and everyday crises of the school, a darker undercurrent stirs. And a bitter grudge, hidden and carefully nurtured for thirteen years, is about to erupt.

Is that it?

I have read Gentleman and Players and I don't think it is that one.

Is it Skippy Dies?

A Midsummer Night's Death (KM Peyton)? That has a murdered/suicidal English teacher and a boarding school setting. Probably 1970s rather than 80s though.

It's def not skippy dies - didn't get on with that at all.
Gentlemen and players and a midsummer nights death don't ring any bells but do sound like poss future reads
It was reviewed on 5 live book review which is how I came across it but their recommendations don't seem to be archived :/
Thank you all for your thougjts

This is frustratingly familiar.

But I now have an image from tv adaptation or film of someone who was part of a school clique being revisited and his mum lets the friend into his room and he is fat and there are model aeroplanes hanging from the ceiling and all over his desk.

And he doesn't want to talk about whatever it was that happened.

But I could be entirely mixing a random dim up with another (completely random) book.

Feeling sad about this author now if no one recognises it! It had a blue cover with white paint splotches and humanoid white figures :/
Just one of those books that comes into my mind for a re read
Thank you for ur help

Fuschia - there is a second hand book site, called Abe Books, which has a forum section where you can post exactly this sort of question.

The members there helped me track down a book I read as a child, but couldn't remember the name of.

HTH - but apologies if you have already tried there.

But I now have an image from tv adaptation or film of someone who was part of a school clique being revisited and his mum lets the friend into his room and he is fat and there are model aeroplanes hanging from the ceiling and all over his desk.

That is a scene from The Butterfly Effect.

Will try Abes books thank you! Will let u know if any luck!

You are completely right 'sliceofsoup'

Told you I was confused.