SlipKnot

by: Priscilla Masters

Published by: Allison & Busby

Reviewed by Diane Kasperski

This thriller is so real it’s scary. Priscilla Masters has crafted a mystery that could very well be a reality somewhere at some time. This is the second in the Martha Gunn series.

Callum Hughes a small, quiet boy has been harassed for years at the private school he attends. Over the years the cruelty has increased but no one stands up for him or helps him. This leads to him bringing a knife to school. One day he had enough and he used it on his tormentor, “DreadNought.”

Callum is labeled as a psycho and no one—the detectives, judge, prison guards—or other students believe otherwise. He is sent to prison and put in a cell with a known psychotic teen. The next morning he is dead, hung, an apparent suicide.

Martha Gunn, coroner, finds this a very difficult case and doesn’t believe everything that is on the surface. Martha is the mother of a 13-year-old who went off to school at the beginning of the case—and it is hitting too close to home. She feels she must dig under the surface to find the true facts around this tragedy. There are too many unanswered questions about Callum’s death and the little things are just not adding up.

The sign of a really first-rate book is when it evokes emotion from the reader. Priscilla Masters does this in SlipKnot. I could actually feel the hopelessness of Callum’s mother and felt anger because the situation between Callum and Roger Gough was allowed to escalate to the point of the stabbing.

The author has a few twists toward the end that really add to this tragedy.

Armchair Interviews says: SlipKnot is must read for all mystery fans.