Blackburne is a highly competitive and no-nonsense Virginia institution, where students are held to strict codes of integrity and academic achievement. When author Matthias Glass returns as a teacher to the eminent all-boys boarding school he once attended as a student, he is sucked back into memories of his best friend Fritz Davenport’s baffling disappearance from ten years before. A decade later, Fritz’s whereabouts are still unknown, but, unlike others, Matthias refuses to believe Fritz is dead.

Christopher Swann’s debut novel flips back and forth between the present day and Matthias’s school days, allowing both times to enlighten each other. When a suspicious death comes to Blackburne, the adult Matthias quickly finds himself in the mold of a gumshoe detective as he seeks out the answers to both past and present mysteries.

The real strength of Shadow of the Lions is the boarding school world that Swann has devised. Atmospheric details down to the Spanish moss-covered tree limbs of the campus are vividly imagined, and the students, who could easily have been cardboard placeholders, vibrate with personality, attitude, and self-awareness.

Perhaps the one black mark on the novel is the ultimate solution to Fritz’s disappearance. While the narrative is intriguing and well-paced, its eventual resolution is a disappointment—answers are given, but are clunky and somewhat unbelievable. But this can be forgiven, as Shadow of the Lions is an effective addition to the campus crime genre. Blackburne is steeped in the whispers and misdeeds of long-held crimes and secrets, and the journey of meting out the truth is the novel’s true delight.