Obedience: A Novel (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A complex conspiracy involving the writing of a book drives Lavender's compelling debut, a thriller that will strike some as a mix of John Fowles's The Magus and Stephen King's The Shining. At Indiana's Winchester University, three students—Brian House, Dennis Flaherty and Mary Butler—are taking Logic and Reasoning 204, taught by enigmatic Professor Williams. They quickly learn this is a course like no other. Their single assignment is to find a missing 18-year-old girl, Polly, in six weeks time—or else, Williams asserts, she will be murdered. Is this merely an academic exercise? As Williams produces clues, including photographs of Polly and her associates, the students begin to wonder where homework ends and actual homicide begins. Together with Brian and Dennis, Mary ventures off campus in search of Polly into a world of crumbling towns, decrepit trailers and hints at crimes old and new. A rapid-fire plot offsets thin characterization, though the conspiracy becomes so all-encompassing, so elaborate, that readers may feel a bit like Mary when baffled by her quest: This is what she felt like: led, played, not in control of anything she did. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Obedience is evidence that crime fiction is hardly a played-out genre …. [G]rafts the world-turned-upside-down suspense of a Harlan Coben thriller to the hall-of-mirrors vertigo of a novel by Paul Auster …. [I]ts ultimate implications continue to spin out in a reader’s mind after the final page is turned."
—Wall Street Journal

“Authentic puzzle mysteries are an endangered species in these hectic times, so it’s a genuine, if slightly perverse, kick to follow every byzantine clue in this bizarre game…. If you solve this one without peeking at the last chapter, it's an automatic A.”
—New York Times Book Review

"Obedience is a fiendishly clever thriller, debut or no, and Lavender exhibits deft control at the wheel."
—Bookgasm.com

"Obedience is quite a twisty little number …. the taunting nature of the challenge is irresistible….”
—New York Daily News

“[T]his is one of those high-concept thrillers with a final twist that upends all expectations, filled with characters who are not what they seem.”
—Entertainment Weekly

"Obedience is a full course load of sinister fun."
—Salon.com

An inspired thriller about cognitive dissonance, conjectural misdirection and the conspicuous dichotomy between academia and the real world."
—Kirkus Reviews

“Will Lavender stuns with this compelling thriller…. The surreal but believable landscape fairly bursts from its confines, goading the reader into finishing just one more page.”
—Louisville Courier-Journal

“It’s a terrific book, part cat-and-mouse mystery and part psychological study of group behavior…. [A] wonderful book with a strong emotional punch at the end.”
—St. P... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; Reprint edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030739638X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307396389
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #385,337 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "What you do has consequences.", February 28, 2008

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Obedience: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Will Lavender's "Obedience," the students in Professor Leonard William's Logic and Reasoning class are about to embark on a strange and unsettling journey. Instead of following syllabus and plowing through a list of readings, the students are being challenged to prevent a murder that will occur in six weeks. The potential homicide victim is an eighteen-year-old named Polly, and the teacher will provide clues that, if followed logically, will lead to the place where she is being held. Three individuals taking the course become deeply committed to saving Polly. Brian House is a tortured young man who is still in shock after his older brother's sudden death; Dennis Flaherty (nicknamed Dennis the Menace) is a handsome and charming womanizer who has a knack for talking his way out of any situation; Mary Butler is an intense junior majoring in English who becomes increasingly agitated as the deadline approaches.

Williams feeds his students information about Polly's family and friends and provides details about her actions just prior to her disappearance. He states that "the best way to learn logic is to decode a puzzle." By solving the "Polly puzzle," they "will learn to think, and induce, and carve out the blight of lazy thought." Mary, Dennis, and Brian interview various people during the course of their investigation. Their inquiries lead them to the parallel case of Deanna Ward, another girl who went missing back in the eighties. Complicating matters for Dennis is his attraction to Elizabeth Orman, the seductive wife of Dean Edward Orman, a distinguished scholar nearly twice her age. As Mary, Brian, and Dennis gradually become more immersed in their task, they begin to question their instructor's motives. Is Williams an evil man with a hidden agenda? Is he toying with them for some nefarious reason? It may very well be that this is all a macabre and sadistic game that must be played out to the bitter end before the truth finally emerges.

"Obedience" is one of those books with a terrific premise that promises more than it delivers. Readers who like brainteasers may enjoy playing amateur sleuth. As the narrative progresses, however, it becomes dreary and tedious, and when the author at last reaches his startling conclusion (one that requires a major suspension of disbelief), many readers will be quite content to part ways with this convoluted psychological thriller that examines our gullibility in the face of authority.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have delivered so much... came up so short, March 7, 2008

By	All Purpose Monkey (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Obedience: A Novel (Hardcover)

Disappointing. I had read so many great reviews about this book (USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, etc) that I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype. The writing is decent and the premise (which is in the product information above so I won't repeat it here) is very intriguing. However, I was unable to suspend belief to the level necessary to really "buy" this story for several reasons:

1) I just don't see 18-20 year olds actually caring as much about the fictional Polly presented in a college course as would be needed to get as sucked down the rabbit hole as they do.
2) the advancement of the plot depends on WAY too many "coincidences" / events happening at just the right time, in just the right location and, on at least one occasion, something most would consider logical behavior NOT happening.
3) as involved as the students get in the mystery, they leave several very obvious avenues of inquiry left unexplored (because, of course, doing so would derail the whole story).
4) there is no way as many people could be "in" on things as are required without someone tripping up or, conversely, no way as many people could be clueless to such elaborate events unfolding in (supposed) secrecy around them.
5) there are several events that, even after the book is wrapped up, don't make sense in context of the given explanation / conclusion.

Perhaps others will not be as "demanding" as I am about characters' behavior and the suspension of belief required, but I was disappointed that a premise that could have delivered so much came up so short.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars over the top, March 2, 2008

By	David W. Straight (knoxville, tennessee United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Obedience: A Novel (Hardcover)

There are some books where when you finish and look back over what you've read, the pieces to the puzzle fit and make sense. There are other books where a review of the pieces in hindsight reveals gaping holes--plot elements that seemed reasonable at the time you read them, but in retrospect cannot stand the light of day. Unfortunately, Obedience falls into the latter category. Even at the time I read the book, there were too many places where I would say to myself things like "Why on earth doesn't Mary ask her friend Summer about this?", or "Why not take the obvious next step about the plagerism issue?" In retrospect, addressing these issues might have given the plot away so the author had the characters act illogically--often very illogically--at times.

At the core of the story is a mysterious professor who nobody seems to know anything about--which is certainly strange, since he's been teaching at the school for many many years and is tenured. This makes no sense at all even in a much larger school such as I'm at (27K students), but we'll let it go. He poses a puzzle about a to-be-murdered girl to the class and asks the students to solve the puzzle as he provides clues from time to time. In the book's opening paragraph it says that Professor Williams is in the faculty guidebook, but without a photo. He's indentified in group photos, but you can only see a hand or arm. The college's website gives a brief CV. When you get to the end of the book, if you return to this first paragraph, you'll see what I mean about gaping holes--and this is just one small example.

Revelations and clues send the 3 student protagonists--Brian, Mary, and Dennis, scurrying back and forth trying to figure out what's real and what isn't, and things grow steadily more sinister and more confusing, and it becomes apparent that there are a lot of mind games going on and a lot of people involved. There's a dramatic denouement which gets spoiled only if you think back on the pieces of the puzzle that led up to it--a short memory span would be useful here--stopping and thinking is a no-no!

At the end, I was reminded of Alistair MacLean's Where Eagles Dare, which has lots of drama and action to compensate for a truly idiotic plot line--the risking of many lives and material on the remote chance of unmasking a suspected traitor in England. Why not just stay in London and torture the suspect there? I thought. There's nothing quite that consequential here to be sure, but as you chug along in the book, everything gets more and more elaborate. "Is this necessary?" I kept asking. "Could we get where we're going more simply?" A quieter and simpler approach, without lots of bells, whistles, and flags, might have been more effective. In the movie Jaws, there was great drama and tension long before the shark finally came into full view--leaving unseen things under a mundane surface could help. The ending of the book supposedly wraps everything up, but it actually raises more questions--money, academic policies, etc. So the book is interesting, but not satisfying.