Obedience

December 24, 2007
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.”

January 15, 2008
On the first day of class, the students of Winchester University's Logic and Reasoning course are stymied by their assignment. Their enigmatic instructor, Professor Williams, gives them six weeks to solve the hypothetical murder of a townie named Polly. He prompts them to use rational thinking to figure out strange, sometimes rather bizarre clues. But as the days go by, some students become convinced that the assignment is not simply a logic exercise meant to sharpen their reasoning skills, but that the clues the professor feeds them are real. If they don't solve his mystery, will an actual girl die? As random students and faculty members start to crop up in his clues, two students become obsessed with Williams and are determined to save Polly at almost any cost. First-time novelist Lavender has a knack for creepy characters and red herrings, but readers looking for more mainstream suspense may find that the intriguing premise gets slowed down by a lack of pacing and too many literary references to Paul Auster's "City of Glass". For larger suspense collections.Rebecca Vnuk, Glen Ellyn P.L., Forest Park, IL

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