My Thoughts On… The Good Teacher by Rachel Sargeant

Hi All!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Good Teacher and I am here today with a review of this brilliant book!

Title: The Good Teacher
Author: Rachel Sargeant
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 14th December 2018
Pages: 336
Format: e-book
Source:: Review Copy from Publisher
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Summary:Even the good have to die.
A beloved teacher is murdered and left in a ditch beside a country lane. His wife is found beaten and gagged in their suburban home.
Even the best schools have secrets.
New detective Pippa Adams learns that the teacher ran a homework club for vulnerable pupils. But what did he really teach them?
Even the perfect family has something to hide.
When Pippa scratches the surface of the school community, she meets families who’ve learned a shattering lesson. And finally uncovers the good teacher’s darkest secrets…

My Thoughts

As soon as I was approached to review this book, I jumped at the chance. It just sounds so interesting, don’t you think? Fortunately, it was indeed that. It was also addictive, intriguing and really had me flipping the pages as fast I could. I needed to know more about what had happened and how it all connected. On top of all of that, I also really liked the main protagonist, Pippa Adams. She’s new to the force but she definitely puts her two cents in when she can. This definitely made the book that much more entertaining, she really brought the book into it’s own. I would definitely recommend this book – especially if, like me, you love character driven stories.

Rachel Sargeant has done a very good of writing a book that keeps you gripped from the very beginning. With a continual flow of changing POVs, you learn first about the murdered teacher, and then about the wife who has been left beaten, chained and gagged inside her own home. The book then moves onto the POV of Pippa but still changes every now and again to other influential characters – although you’re not sure what they have to do with the story until later on. It’s an interesting tactic and one that had me finding it hard to put the book down as I wanted to know why everything that was happening was important. How did it all tie to the end?

Of course, as mentioned above, this book is character-driven and that is mostly around our main protagonist of Pippa Adams. As a new detective, she has to work out how to fit within the new department which comes with a lot of office politics. On her first day, after a simple comment she is given a nickname that she doesn’t particularly like. What I really liked about Pippa is that she isn’t like other detectives often found in these kinds of books. Instead of coming from a low-income background, of being shady or damaged in some way, Pippa is a pleasant person. She is overly-nice and it is this that she often has to battle when it comes to the job. It was really interesting to read about – somewhat refreshing too!

Before I bog down in too many details and spoil the plot – I will wrap up the review here. All in all, I very much enjoyed this book and I am very glad that I decided to give it a chance. It’s not as violent as other books I’ve read, and as mentioned, Pippa isn’t like other detectives but it is a thrilling read that will keep you guessing throughout. So if you’re looking for a new thriller to read, one that will have you feeling suspicious and wary of people, then definitely make sure that you give this book a read.

About the Author

Rachel Sargeant is the author of Kindle Top Ten bestseller The Perfect Neighbours. She is a previous winner of Writing Magazine’s Crime Short Story competition and has been placed or shortlisted in various competitions, including the Bristol Short Story Prize. Her stories have appeared in My Weekly and the Accent Press Saucy Shorts series. Rachel grew up in Lincolnshire, spent several years living in Germany and now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and children.