Review of Old Schoolhouse Road

[Kennedy NC]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Old Schoolhouse Road" by Sarah Vail.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Shortly before the holidays, James Madison High School, situated on Old Schoolhouse Road, experienced a shocking deadly incident. A shooter was on the loose in the school, and his rifle was definitely at work. Many casualties and three students were killed on specific targets. Who could be behind this? What could be the person’s motive? Why would the shooter target the school and those three students?

The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit(BAU) is consulted for the profiling of the culprit in order to find answers to these questions. Tim, once a prosecutor, finds himself trying to solve a murder mystery in a high school while barely done with his training. He works alongside Roxanne, a woman from his past, not without tension between them. Would this team solve this mystery? Or would this challenge prove to be bigger than them? Old Schoolhouse Road by Sarah Vail narrates the thrilling crime-solving of the mysterious shooting in James Madison High school.

This book has a lot of positive aspects to it. A closer look is taken at crime, especially the drugging and raping of children who are barely teens and the amount of effort taken to cover it up. The sexual exploitation of children is rampant, organized, and happens in places least expected, like schools. Pedophiles and psychos would go to any extent to feed their sick desires, as far as sponsoring honor students. The BAU team has a specialty in handling psychotic individuals and has sworn to track them down. These individuals tend to think that law and justice are far behind. Fortunately, the law takes its course in due time as no one is above the law, not even a congressman.

Law enforcement agencies are presented in a positive light in this book. Special thanks to the BAU team and Sheriff LaCrosse. This is against the backdrop of the ineffective and nonchalant attitude most law enforcement agencies adopt in society. In the book, critical, intentional, and organized investigations are carried out. Suspicions are turned into reality with evidence. More so, compared to the preying nature of the media that tend to prefer sensationalism over actual fact, Beebe, though news-hungry as most journalists, shows a genuine interest in learning the truth.

Though subject to the main storyline, the notion of love and family are pointed out in this book. The infusion of this into the plot creates a rather light atmosphere around the book's dark theme. Despite Tim’s wife being richer and several speculations surrounding his marriage to Dani, Tim never felt insecure or intimidated. Not least, the book contained sparse errors. This shows an effort by the author to have the book professionally edited.

There are some negative aspects to this book. Throughout the book, it felt like the author was preserving his reserve of suspense, used sparsely but packed at the end. So packed at the end that readers are left with so many questions on their minds. Who was the old man? And what is his connection with Roxie and Berkstad? Is there more to the story? Notwithstanding all these, I rate the book 4 out of 4 stars because, despite this shortcoming, I greatly enjoyed the book. I recommend this book to lovers of murder mystery novels, detective novels, or thrillers.

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Old Schoolhouse Road
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[Mbenma Esther 080]

Reading a detective novel increases my curiosity spirit in tracking the cause and effect of events. Thanks for the review.

[Aisha Yakub]

Eager to see if Tim's team was eventually able to solve this mystery. Thank you for the review.

[Pauls_]

The book seems mysterious. I'm glad the law took it's course. I would read it to find out how. Great review.

[NetMassimo]

I'm glad that there are some light-hearted parts in this novel, as the central theme is really dark and could discourage potential readers. Thank you for your great review!

[Stephanie Kanu]

This is an excellent review. As a lover of murder mysteries, I am certainly gripped and cannot wait to read this book to find out the full story.

[Ceeco2002]

Crime thrillers are one of my favorite type of books. I'll definitely check this out. Nice review!

[Ay Obaj]

I love it when books storyline are constructed perfectly, and contains every single element of thrill. A book like this will surely wow any reader. Thanks for a honest review.