Starred review from March 10, 2014
Reading true crime reportage adds rare spice to English teacher Vera Lundy’s almost monastic life in Dorset, Maine—that is, until a new job subbing at a girls’ prep school there puts her perilously close to a killer, in this affecting novel of psychological suspense from Watson (Asta in the Wings). Her class’s current reading assignment, The Catcher in the Rye, seems to allow even Vera, who is very reserved, to connect with her teenage pupils, though they are still shaken by the recent murder of a local 11-year-old girl, the dean’s niece. The assignment also allows Vera to risk a closer bond with 15-year-old scholarship student Jensen Willard, an outsider whose writing talent and dark humor remind her of her own troubled adolescent self. Then one of Vera’s pupils is strangled, and police start scrutinizing her as a person of interest. Watson’s twisty plot speeds with page-turner momentum, but what’s likely to stick with you are the complex characters of Vera and Jensen, who are, by turns, vulnerable, flawed, and surprising, bravely struggling to rewrite the stories of their lives. Agent: Denise Shannon, Denise Shannon Literary Agency.
March 15, 2014
Vera Lundy's had a little trouble letting go of her high school demons, so teaching 10th-grade English might not have been the wisest career choice. When she was a student, Vera kept a notebook detailing all her unsavory thoughts about her classmates, particularly one: "If I could find a way to get rid of Heidi Duplessis, I would. I think first I'd duct-tape her to her car, and then I'd shave off her hair with a pair of clippers. If I could kill her and get away with it, I don't think I'd hesitate.'' Then Heidi was murdered. After one of the other girls stole Vera's notebook, Vera started getting menacing phone calls and was even roughed up, causing her to retreat into herself. Years later, Vera is working on a book about the mystery surrounding Heidi's death; unfortunately for her, the confessed killer, Ivan Schlosser, died in prison before he could be brought to trial. Now another girl has turned up strangled. She was a student at the posh, independent all-girls school that has hired Vera as a long-term substitute. Vera finds herself drawn to Jensen Willard, her smartest student, a talented if morbid writer who thrives on Vera's assignment to keep a journal. Intended to help the students draw personal connections to Catcher in the Rye, in Jensen's hands the journal becomes a window into dark thoughts, indeed. One night, while walking home through the dark park, Vera stumbles upon the body of yet another student--one with whom she had recently argued. As the police investigation proceeds, Vera tries to connect the dots but only succeeds in making herself look more suspicious. And then Jensen disappears, launching Vera on a quest riddled with allusions to Holden Caulfield's lost days in New York City. With a keen ear for the machinations of a teacher's mind, Watson (Asta in the Wings, 2009) deftly ratchets up the tension in this riveting game of cat and mouse.
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May 1, 2014
True crime chronicler Ann Rule stumbled on the subject for her first book while working as a rape hotline volunteer with then law student Ted Bundy. Watson (Asta in the Wings) introduces readers to would-be true crime writer Vera Lundy as she takes on a long-term substitute teaching position at a New England private school for girls where she, like Rule, will become directly involved in the investigation of a spree of local murders. Vera, we quickly learn, is a character with a dark past--a past that continues to encroach on her daily life and that explains why, at nearly 40, she leads a minimal and mostly solitary existence, finding solace only in her crime research and bouts of heavy drinking. Guilt and shame over the death of her own classmate decades earlier compel Vera's classroom behavior to veer from that of refreshingly engaging interlocutor to a teacher who crosses the boundaries of propriety with one of her students, Jensen Willard, a talented writer who reminds Vera of her younger self. VERDICT After meeting the mercurial Vera, readers will soon want more from Watson. Fans of psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators will enjoy this outing.--Nancy McNicol, Hamden P.L., CT
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