Tuesday, January 3, 2017

The Year of Needy Girls by Particia A Smith

Deirdre is an excellent school teacher.  She teaches French and has lots of items she's brought back from her travels to Paris.  She teaches the girls to order from menus, make up train trips with the schedules and do other things that are practical.  She also adds some fun and challenges them on tenses.  She loves Brandywine School and her girls.  It's too bad someone misinterprets that...

Kaylie Jones Books sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you). It will be published January 3rd.

What starts the pot bubbling in this small town is the murder of a young boy.  He was from the wrong side of town but it sends a swirl of fear through all families in town.  He had been sexually abused before his death.  They fished him out of the river in a plastic container.  The killer is unknown but they are searching.

With everyone's nerves on edge, even Deidre and her partner, Sara Jane, are getting a bit testy with each other.  They inadvertently get involved with the investigation because SJ was teaching a person of interest how to read.  The cops think she might be involved or might have known about it.  They even question Deidre.

They are living openly as a couple and that was fine when they first arrived but now parents are on a vendetta to protect their children from predators.  The men who abused the boy weren't gay but folks are acting like they were.

The whole matter comes to head when they go on a field trip on the wrong side of town to visit a museum and learn about the past.  At the last minute, the student whose mother wouldn't give permission to go, suddenly shows up with a signed permission slip.  She creates a fuss when she doesn't get to sit with the teacher.  And, when she hangs back and hides until the others are gone, the teacher thinks nothing of it.  She should have been more careful.

This a tale of persecution where it shouldn't have happened.  No one cared what really happened.  The woman who witnessed it had her version and that's all it took.  I've seen this happen before in real life.  Not over this issue but with the same outcome.

Just remember that you need to be careful in life.  There are many people you can't trust.  And it's hard to tell.

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The Affair at the Victory Ball by Agatha Christie

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