A serial killer is on the loose, and he wears the cloak of respectability--as a high school teacher.
It is 1968, and for more than a decade teenaged girls on the west end of Albuquerque, New Mexico have disappeared, never coming home from school There was only one girl who ever escaped the evil of this classroom serial killer, and she must sstop him before he kills again.
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Back cover:
Janette West is a girl who takes murder seriously--especially if it's her own. Having once escaped the clutches of school teacher Jacob Noonan in junior high, she comes face to face again with the threat of his evil when she returns after a long absence to finish high school. Confident that she can stay out of danger, Janette sets out to discover his method for seduction and murder of the girls who weren't as lucky as she. With the help of her classmates and a particularly handsome and mysterious faculty member by the name of David Conrad, it looks like she's about to put Jacob Noonan out of business--until she finds herself in the trap he set for her.
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The After School Murders is the first book in The War This Side of Heaven trilogy and ongoing mystery romance series. It's all about the girl with a gun and the men who can't resist her.
Excerpt
Once more I handed my teacher the revolver, and this time only his hands were shaky. Then he gritted his teeth and made the effort to stay calm. When he pulled the trigger there was a marked improvement, which seemed to make him try harder. Before long his hands hardly moved at all. He was amazed at himself, while I was relieved. It was doubtful that he would ever need to pick up a weapon, but knowing he could do it made me feel better about the possibility of him being close to any action.
“Now I guess I should go out and buy one of these,” said Mr. Conrad.
“Oh, no. You don’t have to do that. I doubt if you’ll need one. But even if you should, we’ve all got spares.”
“This is unreal! I can’t believe what I’m doing. I can’t believe you and your friends. Doesn’t this kind of thing only happen in movies?”
“I’m afraid not. Look, I probably should go. There’s going to be another Guild meeting soon to update the situation, and it will likely include some of our friends like you. I’ll let you know as soon as that happens, okay?”
“Yes, please do.”
Mr. Conrad was taking the whole thing far worse than I was, and nobody was even after him. There had been very little temptation to explore the mystery behind this man, but after watching his severe reaction to the information I had shared and now the gun, I couldn’t help wondering what kind of specter haunted him. I had seen brief glimpses of the personality Margo had sworn existed underneath the stoic exterior, but mostly he presented a distant, businesslike demeanor laced with dry or satirical humor which made his warm and caring attributes a bit of a surprise at first. One theory I had was that it was only a defense against the unwanted attentions of his teenaged devotees, much like the horn-rimmed glasses he wore in private lessons appeared to be. But from what Margo had gotten from Mr. Fletcher and had seen for herself, the purpose was to keep virtually everyone at a distance; and the revelation of his more congenial side depended entirely on the mood he was in and, more importantly, who he was with.
All Carson Reno Mystery Series Books are standalone novels. It is not necessary to read them in any particular order.
A famous author is murdered, Carson is at the scene of the crime and considered a prime suspect – but he doesn’t remember anythi
