Tuesday, April 6, 2010

'School of Lies', 2009, Mickey Hoffman, Dagger Books/Second Wind Publishing, LLC

Kendra Desola is a dedicated high school teacher in Special Ed. and finds that the politics in an academic setting can unnerve you. Vice Principal Zant is a thorn not only in Kendra's side, but all the Special Ed. faculty. When she opens her email one day, there is an attachment photo of four male students in a car and she is pictured in a compromising position with two of them in the back seat. Obviously an altered photo, but how can she prove it? Hoping to stop this fabrication before it spins out of control, she plans to find the culprit. But the suspicious death of a colleague prompts the police to start an investigation on campus. Kendra fears that the police will think she has a motive for murder because of the falsified photo and does not tell them.

'School of Lies' is full of lies, politics and deceitful co-workers. Hoffman delivers broad insight behind the workings of a high school and depicts each character with his/her own idiosyncracy in a clever way. I would have preferred more about the murder and less teaching details. However, 'School of Lies' is a very satisfying first novel for Hoffman. Her book certainly shows her knowledge of teaching.

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