PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION by Jennifer Soosar ~ A Reader's Opinion
A READER'S OPINION
PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION is, as the cover states, a "Novel of Suspense" which it very much is. The female protagonist is Lizanne Demeter, a young teacher looking for a second chance in life. She finds herself reborn, recently released from a mental institution to which she was committed after a foolish suicide attempt due to a failed romance. On a new wonder-drug for depression called Zedorn, she feels that her traumatic past is behind her and she wants to move on and start teaching children again. The novel opens with her applying for a teaching position in Splinter Wood, Pennsylvania, a town far from Pittsburg and her past. However, all is not right in Splinter Wood. There have been suspicious deaths of two of the school's children over the past two years. Lizanne also finds that a serial killer on death row, James Adolph Rootham and head of the "Tribe of James," had his evil enclave just outside of town. Then there is Naomi Seabrook, an extreme helicopter parent who hovers around her son Sebastian, a boy who happens to be in Lizanne's class. Naomi inserts herself as a volunteer teacher's aide and is bold about making suggestions to Lizanne about how to run her classroom for Sebastian's benefit. Unfortunately, Sebastian is a less than ideal student and suffers psychologically from Naomi's suffocating parenting style. Then, another child dies, dropping at Lizanne's feet from a schoolyard tree during recess. Lizanne's world and her control of it are slowly eroding away, as is her grip on depression and flashbacks to her own childhood trauma, which eventually leads to her dismissal. While Lizanne is, without a doubt, a good teacher, she has never fully come to grips with her past and now with all the strangeness of Splinter Wood, Lizanne begins to unravel at the seams and believes that finding the murderer in town will return her to favour with the school principal, Ruth Cannon. A very suspenseful novel, PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION had me holding my breath at times as my eyes quickly skimmed the words trying to discover what was going to happen next. Ms. Soosar keeps Lizanne (and the reader) under an even strain throughout the book. She never telegraphs the outcomes of certain situations either (especially the ending), which I very much appreciated. PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION is almost like a cozy mystery, however, there is some profanity and brief mature situations, though no sex. Highly recommended for fans of the suspense/mystery genre.
Rating: 4 1/2 Stars | Content Rating: PG-13 | Reviewed by: James Fisher
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Fresh out of a mental hospital, Lizanne Demeter is thrilled to get a second chance at her career when she's hired to teach third grade in the backwater town of Splinter Wood, Pennsylvania. But hopes for a peaceful new life are ruined when Naomi Seabrook, a demanding "helicopter parent," pushes Lizanne to the brink.
While struggling to maintain control of her classroom, Lizanne begins to unravel the secret behind Naomi's hell-bent agenda. As deadly clues emerge, Lizanne suspects Naomi is guilty of more than just overindulging her child. With her life teetering on chaos, Lizanne risks everything to expose the shocking truth. But first, she must race against her own spiraling sanity to prove herself a more dedicated teacher than anyone dared imagine--the kind of teacher who makes ALL the difference.
Genre: Suspense/Mystery | Pub Date: June 24, 2017 | Publisher: Black Opal Books
Format Read: E-Book | Source: Provided by the author or publisher
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