Adam and Evil

Gillian Robert's has given the best to date! "Adam and Evil" is a thoroughly intriging and honest work. The story's theme touched the heart of this high school teacher's experience and frustration when attempting to aid a student in crisis. Along with Ms. Robert's usual gift for brilliant writing, the reader is treated to an insider's view to the struggles a teacher sometimes encounters when stonewalled by parents in denial, the administration, and the law. From the first two chapters, those who know Mandy will be desperate to get to the end to discover the changes she may or may not make in her life. Brava to Gillian Roberts and I am eager to begin her newest work, "Helen Hath No Fury".

Once again Ms. Roberts tickles our social conscience without using a heavy hand. A bright and very human Amanda Pepper takes us down familiar streets with new twists. While reaching out to help a student she is sent alone into a spiral of confusion by the world's apathy and her life, both literally and figuratively, is in jeopardy. I would love to see Mackenzie take Amanda on a bayou adventure. Chaz?

This series just keeps getting better and better. In this book, its wryly sarcastic protagonist, Amanda Pepper, has figuratively hit the wall, both at school and in her love life. But she keeps on truckin', solving a nasty murder, saving an endangered student, and pulling together the loose ends of her professional and private lives. Maybe only Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton write with as much humor as Ms. Roberts, albeit hers is darker. A great read.

All too often, a series gets stale after a while. Not so with Gillian Roberts' Amanda Pepper mysteries! If anything, each is better than the last, and ADAM AND EVIL is no exception. Anyone who has taught high school English for many years, as I have, can relate to and appreciate the main character, her well-drawn students and the limited blustering administrator! - Well done - Can't wait for the next one (in which we'll learn what the initials stand for, perhaps, although I still laugh when I remember Amanda's attempts to decode them in the earlier books.)

School's in! Just in time for a hot summer evening comes Gillian Roberts' newest Amanda Pepper novel. This young, thirty-something English teacher is every parent's dream--caring and involved despite a self-serving administration that worries more about image than education. In ADAM AND EVIL, Amanda faces twin dilemmas in both her professional and private lives when a troubled student is accused of murder and her live-in love, a homicide detective, seems willfully obtuse on both fronts. Gillian Roberts is a stylish, witty writer whose compassion shines on every page. I've read all her books and she just keeps getting better. Five gold stars and a big A+!