‘The Good Teacher’ by Rachel Sargeant (Part One)

My blog post for my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Good Teacher’ is different to the majority of my blog tour posts in that it comes in two parts.  The first part (this part) contains my review and the second part contains an extract from the book to give you a taster of what to expect when you pick the book up for yourselves.  I hope you enjoy reading it just as much as I did.

 

Synopsis

Even the good have to die.
A beloved teacher is murdered and left in a ditch beside a country lane. His wife is found beaten and gagged in their suburban home.

Even the best schools have secrets.
New detective Pippa Adams learns that the teacher ran a homework club for vulnerable pupils. But what did he really teach them?

Even the perfect family has something to hide.
When Pippa scratches the surface of the school community, she meets families who’ve learned a shattering lesson. And finally uncovers the good teacher’s darkest secrets…

 

My Review

I read the synopsis for ‘The Good Teacher’ and I just knew that I had to read it as it sounded like just my kind of read- a dark, mysterious, psychological thriller with a twist.  I couldn’t wait to start reading and so without further ado, I dived straight in as it were.  Boy oh boy I absolutely loved reading ‘The Good Teacher’ but more about that in a bit.

I couldn’t help but warm to Detective Constable Pippa Adams from the first moment I met her so to speak.  She is a young, feisty, serious, determined young police officer who is desperate to impress her bosses and desperate to learn from the more experienced detectives.  She has an obsession with Agatha Christie which she lets slip to a member of her team and consequently she gains the nickname ‘Agatha’.  She doesn’t like it but at the same time she is desperate to fit in so lets it go.  I thought that she seemed to lack self confidence but then I suppose we all do when we start a new job.  DC Adams is a very keen observer of people and she certainly seems to know the sorts of questions to ask even if she doesn’t always phrase them correctly.  Pippa has a heart of gold but I think to start with she is perhaps a bit too trusting.  Pippa works well as part of a team but equally she works well on her own.  She is very good at using her own initiative, which has brought her some valuable results and intelligence.  Pippa is determined that her first investigation in CID will be a success.  Is it a success?  Well you are just going to have to read the book for ourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.

Oh my goodness gracious me, ‘The Good Teacher’ is one hell of an addictive read.  The book starts in such a shocking and unforgettable way that it will remain fresh in my mind for a long time to come.  For me, the story hits the ground running and maintains the pace throughout.  The author grabbed my attention literally from the first sentence of the first paragraph of the first page.  It didn’t take me long to get into the book and pretty much by the end of the first page, I knew that I was going to become addicted to reading this book.  So it proved to be- for me at any rate.  I made the mistake of starting to read this book just before going to bed and two hours later I was still reading.  I decided that sleep is for wimps and so I just carried on reading.  I found it impossible to put the book down and I begrudged having to stop reading.  If I had to stop reading for any reason, then I would literally count down the time until I could safely start reading again.  I binge read this book over the course of a day, which certainly helped to distract me from the horrendous chronic back pain that I suffer from.

‘The Good Teacher’ is extremely well written.  The author uses such vivid and descriptive language that I actually felt as though I was Pippa’s invisible work partner.  I found that I was interacting with the book.  Yes, yes before anybody says anything I know ‘The Good Teacher’ is a work of fiction but if I am enjoying a book and the writing is of good quality, I tend to ‘live’ the story as if it were real.  I also have a very vivid imagination which helps too.

Reading ‘The Good Teacher’ is much like being on a rather scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.  I have to be honest and say that I did guess one element of a twist in the tale but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of this book in any way.  There were other twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting and which felt like a punch to the gut.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Good Teacher’ and I would definitely recommend it to other readers.  I can’t wait to read what Rachel Sargeant comes up with next but whilst I wait I am going to read her other book called ‘The Perfect Neighbours’.  I just know that I am going to enjoy reading it just as much as ‘The Good Teacher’.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.