Even the good have to die.
A beloved teacher is murdered and left in a ditch beside a country lane. His wife is found beaten and gagged in their suburban home.
Even the best schools have secrets.
New detective Pippa Adams learns that the teacher ran a homework club for vulnerable pupils. But what did he really teach them?
Even the perfect family has something to hide.
When Pippa scratches the surface of the school community, she meets families who’ve learned a shattering lesson. And finally uncovers the good teacher’s darkest secrets…
I'm delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Good Teacher today. Many thanks to Rachel Sargeant and Harper Collins Killer Reads for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.
Having taken part in an earlier blog tour for The Good Teacher where I shared an extract from the book, I was really looking forward to reading this novel - particularly as I work in a school. Thankfully, my workplace isn't hiding as many secrets as the school in this intriguing thriller (I hope!)
The novel opens with a chilling scene which switches between a young woman, Gaby Brock who is in a desperate plight and an older man out on his bicycle, apparently hiding something from his wife. Reg's reasons for sneaking out behind her back soon pale into insignificance, however, when he discovers the body of a murdered man in a ditch. The victim turns out to be Carl Brock, an English teacher at the local secondary school.
Although The Good Teacher is about the investigation into the murder of Carl and the assault on his wife, it's also about Pippa Adams who has only just left her job as a uniformed officer to become a detective constable. Her first day doesn't quite go to plan and she manages to earn herself the nickname, 'Agatha' after she makes an enthusiastic but ill-timed comment regarding the famous fictional detective's sleuthing methods to her new mentor, DS Mike Matthews. I really liked Pippa; she's naive, awkward and frequently either says too much or too little. However, although she doesn't make the best first impression on her new colleagues, she is actually a perceptive police officer whose outward persona belies her abilities. As for those colleagues, I must confess that I didn't much like many of them, although as the novel progressed I realised my initial feelings about DS Matthews were a little hasty and I found myself warming towards him. I've read quite a few books where the young rookie is teamed with a more experienced officer but they are quite often from the point of view of the old-hand so I enjoyed reading a novel which for the most part follows Pippa's point of view.
The majority of the book is written in the first person from Pippa's perspective but there are parts written in the third person which give us a glimpse into other characters and the most puzzling are the sections following Bartholomew, a clearly devout and deeply troubled man. I really don't want to give too much away about the case itself here, suffice to say I found it fascinating to see how the various strands of the plot eventually came together. I must admit to not being surprised by certain reveals but this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. Although there are some dark themes explored here, I felt that Agatha Christie fan, Pippa would love The Good Teacher as it definitely has the feel of a cosier crime solved by the sleuthing skills of somebody using their powers of observation.
I thoroughly enjoyed it too and actually would welcome reading more books featuring Pippa and DS Matthews. There's certainly scope for further development of both characters and the relationship between them. I'd recommend The Good Teacher to anybody who enjoys well-plotted crime novels with a domestic drama feel to them and look forward to reading more of Rachel Sargeant's books in the future.
The Good Teacher is published by HarperCollins Killer Reads and can be purchased from Amazon UK, Amazon US and in various ebook formats from the HarperCollins website.
Don't forget to follow the rest of the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
Rachel Sargeant is the author of Kindle Top Ten bestseller The Perfect Neighbours. She is a previous winner of Writing Magazine’s Crime Short Story competition and has been placed or shortlisted in various competitions, including the Bristol Short Story Prize. Her stories have appeared in My Weekly and the Accent Press Saucy Shorts series. Rachel grew up in Lincolnshire, spent several years living in Germany and now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and children.
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