Schooled in Murder

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.

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.