About thirty years ago, I read a thriller -- probably written for
teenagers -- set in a mediocre British boarding school. An unpopular
boy (from India, I think) disappears. A troubled American kid, sent to
the school by his wealthy but disinterested father, slacks off at
first, but when he begins to figure out that the missing boy was
probably the victim of foul play, begins to shoulder the
responsibility to find out what happened. He runs afoul of the
teachers, headmaster and police -- none of whom want the mystery
solved. I've searched every way I know how to learn the title and
author of the book. No luck after a year of looking. Any help would be
much appreciated

Hello McCook,

Your book was probably "It's Murder at St Basket's" (1972) by James
Lincoln Collier.

The student whom you remember as from India was apparently Pakistani.


See this description of the book: 

"...It's Murder st St. Basket's (1972) by James Lincoln Collier. The
setting is an ancient London boarding school and involves three new
friends: an American, Christopher Quincy, an English student, Leslie
Plainfield, and David Choudhry, a Pakistani." A truly macabre and
dangerous situation is building up" at this seemingly traditional
educational institution."
source: logan.com
http://www.logan.com/loganberry/solved-ij.html

Used copies are available from Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/offering/list/-/0448214431/all/
Or Bibliodirect
http://www.bibliodirect.com/inventory_item_bf.php?BDID=4106789

-----------

search strategy:
google groups: novel "american boy" british school

I hope this is the book that you remember. If it's not, please let me
know via the "request clarification" feature and I will gladly resume
my search. Thanks.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 08 Oct 2003 22:37 PDT

I should have also mentioned that the part about the American boy's
father making him attend the school and the Pakistani boy being
unpopular are mentioned in this newsgroup post, hosted by Google
Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=Zjt65.352%24te2.762431%40news.abs.net

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 08 Oct 2003 22:38 PDT

I should have given you the link for that whole newsgroup thread:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=Zjt65.352%24te2.762431%40news.abs.net&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3DZjt65.352%2524te2.762431%2540news.abs.net

Stunning, Juggler. It's only 7:30 in the morning here, and already
it's a great day. Is there anyway to insert a sixth star? Thanks so
much, McCook

You're welcome. Thank you for the tip and kind words.
-juggler

Can't believe I didn't think to enter "American boy British School" in
Google. I'm so stunned by the swiftness and accuracy of your search
that I can't even remember what I tried. But I thought it was
everything. McCook.