Orphicum
An elite boarding school. A savage hierarchy. One boy who kept the evidence. Some heads must fall so others may rise.
St. Oswald’s College has spent a century polishing its reputation.
Charlie Campbell is about to bring it crashing down.
Behind the Gothic spires and scarlet blazers of St. Oswald’s,
the prefects rule by fear – and the staff look away.
Blurb
Charlie Campbell never wanted to go to St. Oswald’s. But with his father posted overseas, the gifted young pianist is packed off to the elite boys’ college for his final year – a world of Gothic spires, scarlet blazers and old boys’ ties, where every park bench bears a plaque and every pupil knows his place.
Charlie doesn’t know his place. That makes him a target for Harry Williams, the cruel son of a powerful board member, and for the prefects who rule by fear while the staff look the other way. Humiliation becomes assault. Assault becomes death. And each time, the college has a tidier explanation.
His allies are few: a roommate with divided loyalties, a progressive teacher swimming against the tide, and Libby, a kindred spirit whose closeness to Charlie puts her in the firing line too. When Charlie finally stands against the system, the whole institutional machine turns on him. Evidence is bent, witnesses fall into line, and it’s Charlie who ends up in a cell.
But St. Oswald’s has underestimated him. In a world before camera phones, Charlie has captured everything – and his family knows exactly how to use it.
Some heads must fall so others may rise.
About the book
Orphicum is a coming-of-age thriller about what happens when an institution values its image more than the young people in its care. Inspired by true events, it asks how far a school – and the parents, police and old boys around it – will go to protect a reputation, and what it costs the one person who refuses to stay silent.
Myth and meaning
The title nods to Orpheus, the musician of Greek myth who descended into the underworld and whose severed head, legend says, went on singing after his death. Charlie – an outsider who finds refuge at the piano – makes his own descent into the underworld of St. Oswald’s, a college named for the Northumbrian king whose severed head became a holy relic and still adorns its crest. Latin chapter titles trace the journey, from Institutus and Invidia, through Hades, to Perspicuitas: clarity.
The book’s dedication – Ex vita ars, ‘art from life’ – says the rest.
Drawing on Grant McLachlan’s background in law and politics, Orphicum is fast, unsettling and ultimately cathartic: a story for anyone who has watched powerful people close ranks, and wondered what it would take to break them open.
Content note: contains bullying, violence, homophobic abuse, and death.
Book details
Title | Orphicum |
Author | Grant McLachlan |
Publisher | Klaut |
Genre | Fiction · Coming-of-age thriller |
Setting | St. Oswald’s College, an elite boys’ boarding school in New Zealand |
Length | 14 chapters · c. 170 pages |
Copyright | © Grant McLachlan, 2026 |
ISBN | [insert] |
Formats | [confirm – e.g. Kindle ebook · Paperback · Google Play ebook] |
Release date | [insert] |
Where to buy
Kindle ebook
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• Google Play Books (ebook)
Paperback
• Amazon Australia
• Amazon US
