Captive Audience

For the isolated and intense community of Buriton University in Cornwell, the arson attack on the college's registry office and the resulting death of a second year undergraduate has far-reaching consequences. Sylvester Crawford, the invalid husband of one of Buriton's professors, watches as the ambitions, affairs and darkest secrets of the students and staff are revealed in the tense lead-up to a manslaughter trial. Has the accused student activist leader Ian Macardle fathered the beautiful Jenny Pascoe's child? Or was it the charismatic Toby, or the college principal himself?