When headmistress Claudia Stitchwell dies suddenly at a school event due to a nut allergy, parents and staff begin to suspect foul play - especially as the school is supposed to be a nut-free zone.What follows is a laugh-out-loud investigation told through chat messages, police reports, school newsletters, and personal accounts.

A cleverly constructed murder mystery, highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC.

Claudia Stitchwell, headmistress of a CofE Primary School, collapses in the school hall after her nut allergy kicks in and dies when no EpiPen is found in time. She wasn't well-liked and in particular four people had reason to want her dead - school cook Hattie, teaching assistant Kiera, deputy head Ben and school bursar Clive.

The suspicious parents of "Year 6 Tiger Class" have a lively group chat going that discusses everything from this week's spellings to now rumours that Ms Stitchwell was murdered, considering the school is usually a nutfree zone. We get the typical parents who think their children are the best in everything, the parents whose child loses clothes all the time, or who is never invited to a party and Laura who is always "in the wrong group, sorry". We have the odd vaccine denier and "trans is a life choice" bigot, but we also have great people who help out everywhere and try to make everyone welcome.

The book is written in multi POV between the four suspects (who are all unrelatable narrators) and is interspersed with chaotic chat transcripts, police interviews, receipts from the local supermarket and newspaper articles. I have to admit it took me a while to get used to this writing style, especially as the group chat format was all jumbled up in the Kindle edition.

This book is a hoot! These parents and their gossip and attempts to investigate are hilarious. I also loved "Tickly Tiger's Diary", the class mascot who gets to spend alternate weekends with a child and their parents, and Office Manager Marcia's newsletters to the parents, especially the last one! The addresses go from Parents to Carers to Guardians to Parental Responsibility Providers to Guiding Adults to Self-determining Care Providers to "whatever the bloody hell you want to call yourselves this week", LOL.

The narrative is fast and frenetic anyway but goes up to high-octane speed the further we get in the book, especially when Ben is fighting multiple fires at the same time - the dreaded Ofsted inspection, a school trip that ends in a Norovirus outbreak, his faraway son and his affair with Kiera. This was also around the time I really started to dislike him.

The person I hated the most though was Clive and I have to say it was a brave decision to make him the focus of everyone's hate for the majority of the book, and not the murdered headmistress. He did so many hateful things that his ultimate fate didn't come as much of a surprise and I was rooting for the ever so clever murderer.

The plot is so incredibly entertaining and the characters so well-drawn that I read it in one sitting and was sad when it ended. There are many twists and turns, it is funny as heck with many laugh out loud moments but also dark and knows when to be serious (anyone else having tears in their eyes at little Jacob?). None of the four suspects are flawless, they all have secrets to hide and have not always behaved well, which makes them very relatable.

I loved Over My Dead Body by the same author and I am happy to say she has done it again. This is such a unique, smart book that cleverly incorporates darker elements like religious bigotry, blackmail and abuse of power, and makes us actually be ok with someone possibly getting away with murder. You don't need to be a parent or work in a school but if you do, you will identify so hard with everything. Highly recommended.

As an ex teacher myself, this was ridiculously relatable in so many ways but also so OTT. This kept me hooked from page one and I enjoyed every second.

After a particularly awful headteacher drops dead at a school event, a group of suspicious parents decide to find out what really happened to her.

This was told in a mixed media, very similar to Janice Hallett’s style of books. Text messages are the main part of story telling, mixed in with POV chapters of each of the suspects.

I liked this, it was a fun read and I didn’t see where it was going until about 85% through but towards the end it all became quite obvious where it was going. The main storyline was good and had me hooked for the most part but there were a lot of side plots that I found a bit of a slog to get through if i’m honest.

Bloody loved this. A fresh, original and extremely funny puzzle of a book. Particularly hilarious for those of locked into endless school WhatsApp messages.

That'll Teach Her proves that Over My Dead Body wasn't a one-off and Maz Evans can write equally as hilariously for adults as she does for children. All the characters were brilliantly realised and hilariously/terrifyingly familiar from my time as a teacher and parent at a small village primary school - even those who only got a few lines of WhatsApp messages.

We are thrown into the investigation of the death of Claudia Stitchwell, much-loathed headteacher. Was she the victim of a careless baker who forgot her nut allergy, or is something more sinister going on? With its mix of text messages, letters and first person it is reminiscent of The Appeal but with a hefty dose of Evans' trademark humour. No one is quite what they seem and there are plenty of twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. Evans keeps a large number of threads going throughout the text, weaving them all to a satisfying conclusion. A great read

I am not recommending this one to my students because they do not seem to be the target readers of this one. It is an absolutely hilarious book. I teach online and have a couple of parents group -- one is a group that changes by semester based on enrollment to my courses, the other is a small tight knit group of parents that have known me for years. The former has around 80 parents while the latter has only 16 parents. I have to say that those parent group chats in the book sound extremely real. Maybe it is because I am not officially a school, but a tutor, they do not seem to be the least bit bothered about what I get to read there.

This book is perfect as a gift to the parents. (Yes, I do send a small gift to a parent every semester for being the most helpful parent that semester. And yes, this one will be perfect.)

By the way, a quick review of the book: hilarious, relatable, realistic.

When a loathsome headteacher dies unexpectedly, the whole school community is shocked. Some are also relieved, and only a very few will miss her. As the parents of children in Tiger Class chat online and the school gears up for the rigours of the Christmas term, life goes on but not as anyone had expected.
I absolutely loved this, I flew through it and, having worked in both a junior and senior school, recognised many things! The parents, children, staff, and environment were all drawn brilliantly and totally believable.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Headline, but the opinions expressed are my own. Highly recommended doesn't disappoint in any way.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read arc of this book in exchange for this review

I absolutely loved this book it’s the first book I have read by the author and I loved the author way of telling stories and will be on the hunt for the rest of authors books to read

I thought I had worked it out who had done it within a few chapters in but boy was I wrong !!!

The headteacher who died could of been miss trunbiab from Matilda twin sister as she was so evil

I loved the school parents what’s up group and trying to work out who killed the headteacher

Would highly recommend this book

Brilliant! What a ride - a hilarious whodunnit!

Written in the style of emails and social media chats between parents, as well as being written from the viewpoint of those non-parents. Personally I love this style of writing - I feel it works so well, and adds to the lighthearted comedy style.

I read this in one sitting - and I’m not that sort of reader at all, that how swept up and easy reading this is. It does get slightly dark - this is a murder mystery after all…and not everyone is perfect are they?

Overall, I absolutely loved this from start to finish - give me more!

My thanks to Netgalley and Headline for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED Maz evans last book but this took me a while to get into because of the style it was written in.. however it was funny as hell and any parent in a WhatsApp school group will blooming love the hell outta it!

That’ll teach her
By Maz Evans
Published by Headline Publishing Group

A fabulous, fun to read addition to Maz Evan’s collection.
Imagine the scene; a school, a tight knit community and lots of gossip!
Why? Because a headmistress is dead.
Everyone is suspicious.
Everyone is a suspect. 
And when you are on the parent group chat, anything is possible ...

Headmistress, Claudia Stitchwell drops dead in the school hall, but the parent group suspect the nut allergy explanation doesn't add up - someone wanted to teach Miss Stitchwell a lesson and they have.

Maz has written pure ‘laugh out loud’ moments through piecing and layering together evidence from the daily drama of the parents' group chat, local press reports, police reports, school newsletters, and good, old-fashioned gossip.
As anyone knows who works in a school environment, everyone has a back story and unsurprisingly links are easily made. But will you be the one to piece it all together?

This witty, five star read will have you guessing right to the end to crack the code and deduce who has done it?
An absolute joy!

Joanne Bardgett - teacher of littlies, lover of Children’s literature.
#Netgalley

I've long been a fan of Maz Evans' writing for children and this, her second book for adults, is a really clever and innovative cosy crime thriller.

As a headteacher myself, I was immediately fascinated by the premised of this book - a headteacher dies suddenly at a school event and the parent chat groups are full of suspicion, speculation and investigation. Miss Stitchwell was a very unlikeable character and there are four immediate suspects all with different roles within the school and all with different motives for killing her.

The story itself is told through different media - copies of group chats, newspaper articles, emails from the school and chapters told from the perspective of different characters. It was cleverly done with lots of different threads going through the different chapters and eventually all coming together at the end (it reminded me of The Affair by Janice Hallett which I thought was brilliant). The characters were all immensely unreliable and throughout the story you change your mind about each of them several times; it was never obvious who the culprit was and I was kept guessing throughout. It was also incredibly funny with a very wry sense of humour - Evans captured the nuances of a school and a PTA really well! Overall, great read that is definitely worth pre-ordering before it is released on 27th February 2025!

I’m afraid I gave up on this book. I liked the idea of it but got bogged down in the style. It’s a mixture of text messages and posts as well as official statements made to the police. The structure of the plot is lost amongst the fractured prose.
It would seem that every character has a secret known only to a select few others. I got confused with the numerous sub plots. Maybe I am not the right demographic ( 69 year old female) . Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC ebook.

What an entertaining five-star read. I think this author has a fascinating way with words, they write funny in an engaging yet real manner. What a wonderful cast of characters, between the carers/families/guardians/childhood representatives and the teachers, as well as everyone else it just keeps the fun jumping off the page. Alas there isn’t just fun in this story, there is death and mystery as well, and twists that will keep you wondering. There is a great story and fantastic characters in this story and a read that you won’t want to miss. I must admit that the WhatsApp made me chuckle so much, it was so realistic.

Any parent who has ever been in a school WhatsApp group will live this dark and hilarious murder mystery from Maz Evans. Full of Maz's trademark wit & brilliant observations of day to day life. This is a perfectly plotted and well constructed mystery, that kept me turning the pages. Highly recommend!

When the thoroughly unpleasanr headteacher drops dead in the school hall, the parents' WhatsApp group finds the "nut allergy" explanation a little suspicious.

They think it was murder.

They have four suspects.

Thge trouble is, they're all Olympic grade liars...

A quirky black comedy - a universally hated head-teacher at an extraordinarily strict Christian school is found dead after she announces that she won't be retiring but will stay in post for another few years. We quickly realise she has died as a result of her nut allergy but everyone knows she's severely allergic - could it be foul play rather than a tragic accident?
The list of potential suspects grows longer and longer as we learn more about the cast of characters who surround the head teacher, the new deputy head who had all but been promised a promotion, the head of finance who knows all about the school's hidden secrets, and parents and pupils that she has bullied over the years.
It was hugely entertaining, I didnt spot the twists and was gobsmacked when they came!

In That’ll Teach Her, Maz Evans brings the crime novel bang up to date solving the suspicious death of primary school Headteacher through a combination of What’sApp messaging, police reports, soft toy diaries and what feels like the unraveling minds and confessions of the entire school community. It is a laugh out loud look at the power of a community and the complex relationships that exist within it. Through Quiz Nights, Parents’ Evenings and a lot of alcohol, the truth will out, but not before a lot of unintended confessions take centre stage. This is a brilliantly innovative look at life in a primary school and one that exposes much more than an Ofsted inspection ever will. Ofsted rating: outstanding!

When disliked headteacher Claudia Stitchwell dies suddenly at a school event due to a nut allergy, the gossip machinery is set alight by staff and parents debating how this could have happened in their nut free school. The mystery of whether this was an accident or murder keeps us guessing right to the end of the book but it’s the humour, chaos and life stories of the cast of characters which makes That’ll Teach Her such a brilliant read.
If you are familiar with the school run and all the parent drama that surrounds it, there are so many laugh out loud moments and relatable characters. Maz has created a rich soup of Ofsted visits, projectile vomiting bugs, ill fated school trips, lost equipment and competitive parents, and then added in a cracking whodunnit. I loved the diary of Tickly Tiger; my children’s school had something similar with a bear.
The format of a mix of prose, police statements, newspaper items, whatsapp messages and school e-mails does take a bit of adjustment but once that’s made, it is a real page turner with characters that you can really get invested in.
I loved her first adult novel, Over My Dead Body, I loved this and I hope to see more adult novels from Maz Evans.