KILLING MR. GRIFFIN

by Lois Duncan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 1978

In a portrait of group guilt that recalls Duncan's I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973), five members of demanding Mr. Griffin's senior English class decide to teach him a lesson by kidnapping him from the high school parking lot and leaving him bound and gagged in a lonely spot out of town--where, before the students return to free him, the teacher dies. (Unknown to the kidnappers, he has been under medication for angina.) The prank is engineered by the stereotypically disturbed and evil Mark, who keeps the others in line, kills co-conspirator Dave's grandmother to keep her quiet, and is stopped just short of killing Susan, a ""little creep"" with glasses who's been lured into a decoy role by virtue of her crush on Dave. Shifting viewpoints among the five, their families, and the teacher's wife, Duncan allots the most attention to Susan, the least involved, and she lets her off most easily in the end. It's all a bit too easy, but well-greased as ever--another of Duncan's nonstop thrillers, with as cunning a hold on its readers as Mark has on his confederates.

Pub Date: April 20, 1978

ISBN: 0316099007

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION