Customer Reviews

Schooled in Murder: A Tom and Scott Mystery (Tom & Scott Mysteries)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This 12th installment in the series about schoolteacher Tom Mason and his partner, retired pro baseball star Scott Carpenter, focuses on Tom's life as an English teacher and union rep at a suburban Illinois high school. With trends in teaching quickly changing, there is a definite division between the "old guard" teachers in the English department, and the newbies fighting for tenure and to have their methods and preferences recognized. By playing favorites and encouraging such strife, the administration of Grover Cleveland High School has allowed this rivalry to escalate into a near war, departmental meetings with teachers shouting out insults at each other, distracting the administrators as well as each other. But when one such meeting ends with two dead bodies found on campus (both found by Tom), it's clear that there may be more going on here than professional rivalry.

The novel can be a bit of an eye-opener to readers not aware of the "old vs new" arguments that are indeed part of the educational process in America, and a shock to find teachers behaving worse than the kids they are supposed to be teaching. When a pattern of lies emerge that implicate Tom as a possible suspect in the murders, he starts an investigation of his own, helped by his few allies in the school willing to risk getting in trouble with the administration, seemingly oblivious at first, but later found to be deeply involved in the scandals that may have triggered the murders. Grade and statistic rigging, teachers cheating on pay for extracurricular activities, bigotry based on ethnic origin and sexual orientation, selling tenure for favors, as well as good old fashioned sexual improprieties surface as possible factors that could have led to the deaths. The police are stumped, and Tom is in the middle of the group of "likely suspects" that increasingly want him out of their way.

Zubro can always be relied upon for a well-written and meticulously crafted mystery novel, and this is very much in that vein. It is a bit more one-dimensional than most in the series, and doesn't really involve Scott except as the stabling and protective influence on Tom. While I can believe the exaggerated internal strife in a high school leading to such events, the police reaction seems less than realistic to me, in this story. But, it is, after all, a work of fiction, and definitely one worth reading. I give it four stars out of five.

I've really enjoyed the books in both of Mr. Zubro's series, most of which have attained great heights in mystery writing. But, with great heights come the risk of great falls. This book is awful. There are so many characters, assigned to different sides in an academic internecine battle, that a progam list would have been helpful. They are so full or anger and deceit as to make them ridiculously unreadable. The plot is laden. Now that Zubro's plumbed the depth of quality, one can only look forward to his regaining the high ground.Schooled in Murder: A Tom and Scott Mystery (Tom & Scott Mysteries)

"Schooled in Murder" more or less chronicles a kind of civil war taking place in a suburban Chicago secondary school, with faculty and administration arrayed in two strongly opposing sides in a battle literally to the death over teaching methodologies and overall control of the school. The passion and intensity written into this story by author Mark Zubro suggests that he knows the turf well and is writing as a witness to his own years as a public school teacher.

The novel begins with the book's principal protagonist, gay and out English teacher, Tom Mason, walking out of a fractious faculty meeting and into a supply room tryst between two male teachers and, coincidentally, a murder scene. The early set up of the plot by the author of this scene and the reaction of protagonist Mason were, for me, the highwater marks of the story. From that point forward, the inter-mural warfare in the school is described in such over the top terms that some of the otherwise excellent writing of the book is obscured.

There is so much anger and angst in the story that follows, including a second murder, that logic and the usual "procedural" part of a crime story, disappear almost altogether. Homophobia and lust for power become the overriding motives for every crazy act that follows in the book and ultimately those themes are too exagerrated to bring the story to a credible close.

This was the first Zubro mystery that I've tried and, in hindsight, I wish that I'd chosen another in this critically praised series.

I believe I have now read all of Zubro's books and I have to say that I really enjoyed this one. There were times when the dialog didn't ring quite true but through it all, it was entertaining. That's the reason I read his books...to be entertained, to escape, to get into his character's lives and for a few hours, out of mine. It's light but entertaining. Hope you enjoy it too.

Great series of mysteries, involving Tom and Scott, gay teacher and gay baseball pitcher. The author does a wonderful job of portraying the life of two gay men living together and facing life's problems. They do a great job of showing that two men can live happy and productive lives, free of the prejudice of others. You will enjoy this mystery very much.I would recommend any of Mark Richard Zubro to anyone as a great read.