by Terrance McArthur

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win an ebook copy of the book and a link to purchase the book from Amazon.

Four young boys die in a hallucinogenic-caused car crash, and Ken Parks is ordered to deal with it. Parks is the school district’s assistant superintendent in Portsmouth. He deals with teachers, parents, principals, and problems, but he never faced a problem like this, in Cruel Lessons, a gritty mystery by Randy Overbeck.

The district superintendent and the school board chairman want the district protected from lawsuits, and they want voters to be willing support a tax measure. The police chief wants the case closed so he can win reelection. Somebody wants to lay the blame on Stacy, a teacher who still cares about her students, when other teachers have stopped caring about everything except their images. Ken wants to get drugs out of the school, because guilt lingers in his heart about a long-ago family tragedy. The book is sort of a Middle School Confidential—foul-mouthed fifth grade students, a bus driver-mechanic with a side hustle, tenured teachers who break the rules because they know they can’t be fired, marital infidelity, and a custodian who is never noticed, always watching, and ever aware. Working with Parks to solve the mystery is Bart, a DARE officer, determined to protect the students from drug culture and danger, even when he is ordered to stop investigating.

Overbeck writes The Haunted Shores Mysteries, a paranormal-tinged series, but Cruel Lessons is the first in a new, real world-based run of stories, a world he knows so well. His decades in the education field make the details come alive, from the snide chit-chat and complaining in the teachers’ lounge to the noisy chaos between classes, to the smells of school corridors.

Enroll in Cruel Lessons. Sign up for a class in misdirection, false accusations, and dogged determination. You might learn something.

To enter to win an ebook copy of Cruel Lessons, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “cruel” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen November 11, 2023. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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Terrance V. Mc Arthur worked for the Fresno County Public Library for three decades. He is retired, but not retiring. A storyteller, puppeteer, writer, actor, magician, basketmaker, and all-around interesting person, his goal is to make life more unusual for everyone he meets.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.