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A Calculated Demise    by Robert Spiller Amazon.com order for
Calculated Demise
by Robert Spiller
Order:  USA  Can
Medallion, 2007 (2007)
Paperback
* *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

If there is trouble to be found, you can count on math teacher Bonnie Pinkwater to be the one to do it. Bonnie stumbles across the body of the school's wrestling coach – stabbed to death!

Although he was a gruff, unfair teacher, she feels that death was an extreme response to his bullying. When one of her special ed students is arrested – unjustly she believes - for the murder, Bonnie can't help herself. She has to get involved. She enlists the help of Greg Hanson, an honor student and a friend of the accused.

Greg's father and brother grow marijuana and peddle it. When they are found dead, the mystery thickens. More people become involved. Bonnie's job is threatened by the school administrator because of her investigating. But her ire is really roused when her beloved dog's life is put on the line.

Bonnie is a delightful protagonist – a fifty-something, grey-haired teacher who has just lost her husband. She deals with this tragedy as any widow would. She bucks the system when she feels it necessary and glories when one of her students shows that wonderful spark of interest that teachers love to see. The storyline is a good one and the action moves at a pace to keep the pages flying.

Author Robert Spiller is fairly new to the mystery scene with two other novels, The Witch of Agnesi and Irrational Numbers to his credit. I hope there will be more of this series.

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