Killing Mr. Griffin
From beloved author Lois Duncan comes a frightening novel about a group of students who set out to teach their malicious teacher a lesson -- only to learn that one of them could be a killer.
Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to her crush, Dave, and to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when Dave asks Susan to help a group of students teach Mr. Griffin a lesson of their own, she goes along with them. After all, it's a harmless prank, right?
But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another and people begin to die, Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer.
Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to her crush, Dave, and to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when Dave asks Susan to help a group of students teach Mr. Griffin a lesson of their own, she goes along with them. After all, it's a harmless prank, right?
But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another and people begin to die, Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer.
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Community Reviews
This book definitely does not compare to the mystery-thrillers of today but does keep you on your toes quite a bit. After coming up with such an elaborate scheme that goes wrong, it is interesting to see what the group decides to do and how each character handles the situation. We really learn about the characters more after the death than in the planning because now they have to come to terms with what happened.
Although there were some aspects that I definitely didn't see coming, I felt like overall the book fell kind of flat for me. I expected there to be a lot more suspense or investigation. Again, hard to compare a book from the 70s to those of today. There was so much that felt predictable. And when there were twists, they just seemed to be stated versus mysteriously drawn out and keeping readers guessing until the final reveal.
That being said however, as a teacher myself, I began to wonder if any of my students felt this way about me or their other teachers. I definitely had some teachers that I would have like to just disappear but actually going through with it is a completely different thing. I could totally see this book being read in a classroom setting and leading to some really great discussions - if there was a trial, how would it go? Who should be held responsible? How responsible? This could definitely lead to some great debates and conversations.
Overall, a decent mystery but if you are looking for more thriller, this isn't it.
Although there were some aspects that I definitely didn't see coming, I felt like overall the book fell kind of flat for me. I expected there to be a lot more suspense or investigation. Again, hard to compare a book from the 70s to those of today. There was so much that felt predictable. And when there were twists, they just seemed to be stated versus mysteriously drawn out and keeping readers guessing until the final reveal.
That being said however, as a teacher myself, I began to wonder if any of my students felt this way about me or their other teachers. I definitely had some teachers that I would have like to just disappear but actually going through with it is a completely different thing. I could totally see this book being read in a classroom setting and leading to some really great discussions - if there was a trial, how would it go? Who should be held responsible? How responsible? This could definitely lead to some great debates and conversations.
Overall, a decent mystery but if you are looking for more thriller, this isn't it.
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