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…
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I'd like to thank Rachel Sargeant for inviting me to be a part of her blog tour and Harper Collins/Killer Reads for my copy of The Good Teacher to review via NetGalley.
The first day in a new job is always a little intimidating but being thrust into the middle of a kidnap and murder case is quite some introduction for new detective Pippa Adams. It's up to Pippa and her colleagues to investigate why local school teacher Carl Brock was targeted and murdered when everyone they speak to thinks so highly of him.
Pippa was an interesting character who was determined to do whatever she could to fit in. She'd already made a crucial career decision to put her love of dancing behind her to join the police force, and now she's made the move from being a beat copper to become a detective and wants to prove herself good at her job. She will do whatever it takes to fit in and has already toned down her upper class accent, and refused her mothers attempts to approach family acquaintances who are her superiors. But despite all that she still finds herself tongue-tied and prone to saying the wrong thing at the wrong time much to the amusement of partner Sergeant Mike Matthews who nicknames her 'Christie' after a comment about Agatha Christie.
Much like an Agatha Christie novel, The Good Teacher, is definitely more of a whodunnit case rather than a gritty police procedural although the opening chapter certainly packed a punch in setting the scene. The rest of the book follows Pippa, Mike and their team as they start to investigate the victim himself to figure out who he really was, and what he had got himself involved in that led to his eventual death. But with so many people proving reluctant to talk, the answers will take a little digging deep into the backgrounds of the people they meet during the course of the investigation before they get to the truth. The investigations will certainly throw up a few surprises. some more obvious to the reader than others, until they get to the real motive behind the case.
The Good Teacher was a great introduction to the writing of Rachel Sargeant as despite buying a copy of her previous book, The Perfect Neighbours, it's one of the many books I've bought that I still haven't managed to find the time to read. Having published both a psychological thriller and now a crime novel, I'll be interested to see what direction her writing takes us next.
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