Coup De Grace - Tapa dura

Newly minted Ph.D. and sometime amateur detective Sarah Deane heads off to teach English at Miss Merritt's, a New England girls' boarding school. Upon arrival, Sarah learns that Mm. Grace Carpentier, a famously iron-fisted French teacher, is hated (with good reason) by students and teachers alike. In fact, someone's been leaving all sorts of expressions of hatred around campus - paper dolls bearing the likeness of "Mme. Guillotine's" familiar caped figure hanging in effigy, a bizarre and disturbing painting, and threatening postcards.
But when another teacher is found murdered along a campus path, it seems that someone wants revenge for more than just a failing grade. While the police scratch around for clues, Sarah juggles grading papers and lecturing on Macbeth with her own investigation of this "bloody business." Can she catch the killer before it's too late?

J.S. Borthwick lives with her family on the Maine coast, where many of her mysteries are set.