I love a good thriller and The Teacher was recommended to me by another library staff member – Alison. She knows I have a penchant for murderous reading material.
The prologue begins with a person digging a grave and it’s an immediate hook. The plot centres around troubled Caseham High student Addie. Addie comes with a warning label. She is a liar, troubled and has no friends. The previous year a teacher at Caseham High was dismissed because of a scandal involving Addie, so there is plenty of gossip from both the staff and students surrounding Addie.
Eve and Nate Bennett, a married couple who are teachers at the school are the other main characters in the book. They are stuck in a dreary and almost sexless marriage.
Nate is Addie’s English teacher, and they bond over their shared love of poetry and begin and illicit affair. Eve is Addie’s maths teacher and from the beginning they do not get on and Eve has an immediate distrust of Addie.
I don’t want to give the plot away, but the book has more twists and turns than an old garden hose and an ending which I certainly didn’t see coming.
If you are looking for a literary masterpiece this isn’t the book for you, however it has been a long while since I’ve read a book that I couldn’t put down and I loved the short chapters. It is a book you can easily read in a few days for those of us who are time poor.
I would also recommend Lisa Jewell, Louise Candlish, Fiona Barton and Michael Robotham for go to crime writers.
-Penny Howse, Cootamundra Library
