Schooled in Death

When the body of Horace Radcliffe, headmaster of Eldersley College, is discovered on the morning of 23rd May, 1975, police are puzzled by the corpse's appearance.  Clearly the headmaster has been murdered, but why did the murderer put a flower behind his ear and decorate his face with lipstick?

Eldersley College is an exclusive girls' school on the outskirts of the Southern Highlands town of Bowral, so investigating the murder falls to the lot of that town's world-weary Detective Sergeant Haines, a self-confessed country plod.  Haines is assisted by his younger, promising side-kick, Constable Fraser.

Haines finds the teaching staff of Eldersley 'a queer lot', so he's spoiled for choice.  Not one of them lacked a reason for disliking Horace Radcliffe, but did one of them dislike him enough to kill him?

There follow two more murders - a local businessman and another member of Eldersley's staff - a death toll that's beginning to attract the attention of Haines's superiors.  Can Haines and Fraserf prevent a fourth murder and solve the case before matters are taken out of their hands?