Study in Slaughter (Book)

Study in Slaughter is the third book in Christopher G. Nuttall's fantasy series Schooled in Magic.

Brimming with new ideas for magical research, Emily returns to Whitehall School for her Second Year, only to discover that things are going to be different. Her friends have become sports-mad fanatics, her new roommates are strangers to her, her new classes are far harder and one of the teachers seems to actively dislike her. As she returns to the comforting routine of the only place she considers home, she finds that Second Year will be far harder than the first.

But as the students settle in to continue their studies, it rapidly becomes clear that all is far from well at Whitehall. There's a murderer running loose in the school. A murderer who may be a newborn necromancer. And then there's the spy watching Emily from the shadows, waiting for her to make one tiny, but fatal mistake ...

As the darkness falls on Whitehall, Emily may be their salvation...or the person who damns them all.

Background
Unlike the previous two books, which sought to give exposition to the Nameless World, Study in Slaughter served to focus on Emily Sanderson as a person, and her desire to overcome her personal demons and develop as a person.

Much of the book was inspired by Virginia Ironside's Burlap Hall series, which features an assortment of monsters attending a school.

Up until now, Nuttall had been actively seeking to avoid any resemblance to other published works, in particular, JK Rowling's Harry Potter series (which also features someone from the non-magical world entering into a magical world and attending a school for magic). However, after the work was finished, someone pointed out to him that the plot of Study in Slaughter is very similar to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Nuttall admitted to being irritated by this, but by that time it was too late to change the story.

Plot Summary (Spoilers)
Work In Progress