I Will Ruin You by Linwood Barclay
This novel has lots of twist and turn that will keep you guessing. High school English teacher Richard Boyle looks out his classroom window one day and sees a man with what looks like explosives strapped to him approaching the school. He leaves the classroom abruptly, telling his students briefly to alert authorities and protect themselves and runs to try to intercept the man. He is able to avert a major tragedy, but recognizes that there is still a tragedy, and a motivation that the former student had to act the way he did.
Unbeknownst to him, his appearance on the news triggers another situation, as he is approached by a man who tries to blackmail him based on supposed acts he did years before.
As one would expect, this has a big impact on Richard, both in terms of thinking of ways to avert the situation or deal with it, and in terms of what this new accusation might say in terms of the actions of the first man in terms of validation.
Richard's wife Bonnie, a principal at an elementary school is also dealing with a tragedy, the loss of the mother of one of her students. Bonnie's sister Marta, a police officer was involved with the case of the mother's death, and her investigations lead her towards a drug ring.
As the two cases begin to connect, all involved will find themselves trying to protect those they care about as well as finding the truth.
This is a novel that took a while to get me hooked, but that did engage me, both with the intriguing plot, and with the characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment