The Writing Class: A Novel
by: Jincy Willett
Published by: Thomas Dunne Books
Buy From Amazon.com
Reviewed by Andrea Sisco
Amy Gallup is a mess! One could make a good guess that she is clinically and chronically depressed and has been for years. She may be a talented writer, but she peaked at an early age and her writing career has plummeted since then. Amy’s been widowed and divorced and she leads a pretty empty life.
Amy is currently teaching an extension class in writing. She doesn’t usually like her students (she really doesn’t like anyone), she’s an overweight loner who hates to be alone, is the caretaker for a dog she doesn’t believe likes her and frankly she probably doesn’t like him much, and she’s got a mystery on her hands.
The semester writing class has the “usual suspects.” There are serious students, but there is also one who wants to use the class to “hook up” with a woman, plus the slackers, a know-it-all, an angry feminist, and the list goes on. But what is different about this class is that there is a very sick someone threatening the students via phone calls, obscene writings and ultimately a murder.
Amy and the class members bond in an attempt to solve the case–even knowing that one of them is the murderer. More people may lose their lives if Amy and her students don’t find the murderer.
Willett’s The Writing Class is the most unique mystery I’ve read in years. Her heroine is fraught with problems and issues (as are the students) but that really helps to involve the reader in the story. Willett uses the student’s writings to help solve the mystery and those writings are included in the book as is some diary entries written by the murderer.
I figured out who the culprit was, but that didn’t make the story less intriguing because the plot, characters and the writing were front and center in The Writing Class. My only criticism is that occasionally the story line dragged, but not enough to make me put down the book.
Armchair Interviews says: You’ll enjoy Jincy Willett’s The Writing Class.
Author’s Web site: http://www.JincyWillett.com
From our armchair to yours...
