The Mad Season

Rating:
Summary: Back to School is Murder
Review: In his second Steve Asher mystery, The Mad Season, Blanchard sharpens his craft while losing none of the charm of the first. The story is more of a whodunit than Murder at Walden Pond, but Blanchard still centers the story with his reluctant, appealing sleuth Asher. Blanchard also has a gold mine of a setting: a public school. Is there any place in the world as people intensive as a public school? They are places of shifting loyalties, lifelong friends, career long grudges... and there is a shaky hierarchy of superintendents and principals trying to impose order on a world that is intrinsically messy. Blanchard not only takes you back to school but lets you delight in the chaos.

Rating:
Summary: Back to School is Murder
Review: In his second Steve Asher mystery, The Mad Season, Blanchard sharpens his craft while losing none of the charm of the first. The story is more of a whodunit than Murder at Walden Pond, but Blanchard still centers the story with his reluctant, appealing sleuth Asher. Blanchard also has a gold mine of a setting: a public school. Is there any place in the world as people intensive as a public school? They are places of shifting loyalties, lifelong friends, career long grudges... and there is a shaky hierarchy of superintendents and principals trying to impose order on a world that is intrinsically messy. Blanchard not only takes you back to school but lets you delight in the chaos.

Rating:
Summary: Blanchard's books keep getting better!!
Review: Once in a while a reader finds a favorite author whom he/she rushes to the store to buy the newest book solely based on the author. This has happened to me with Al Blanchard. All of his books and short stories are so wonderfully crafted that I know for sure I will enjoy and relish his tales. In his latest, Blanchard has created a mystery based on murders at a public school. The wonderful descriptions of the characters, the way sub-plots are interwoven throughout the story, and the ability in all of us to relate to our school days makes this book a must-read.