Stag Hunt by Anthony McGowan Hodder $108 This debut from a former civil servant is part lad-lit and part serial-killer whodunit. The troubled protagonist, Matthew Moriarty, has a dead-end job in a dead-end part of town - a place of strip-lights, chipped desks, grey walls and disillusioned employees. He lives a half-life, unable to forgive himself for raping a girl years earlier. A new friend, Dom, invites him to a stag weekend in an isolated, and possibly haunted, country house. Dom and his friends from boarding school are in high spirits, but Matthew senses tension in the group - as if they're hiding secrets. Interspersed with Matthew's story is a narrative from an unnamed man who was raped repeatedly by a group of other boys at boarding school with the encouragement of one of the teachers. When the teacher and the party guests start dropping dead, it's clear the victim has turned avenger.
