The Teacher by Katerina Diamond

 

The Teacher is the first of the Imogen-Miles series by Katerina Diamond. DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles are introduced to each other for the first time and are thrown together to be colleagues and handle city crimes. Both were convinced that either party was "a punishment posting" and they just had to deal with it as long as it lasted. What started off as awkward, straightforward to the extent of being blunt, gradually saw a growing, respectful and indispensable camaraderie. I loved this partnership.

That said, The Teacher is the story of how a series of gruesome murders rattle the city of Exeter. The Grey-Miles team assumed it to be a serial killer on the prowl, but they were shocked to discover that there was a whole network of corruption, lies and unimaginable exploitation.

The story preludes with a teacher committing suicide in the school's assembly hall. He had received a package just a few hours ago, which was his cue that the game was over and his time on Earth, too. The school authorities were aware of the reason, but chose to keep it under wraps for many years. 18 years to be precise. But, most often than not, and not to our liking, secrets don't always remain buried. A person is now suddenly in the neighbourhood, taking revenge for the atrocities meted out. Do Imogen and Adrian get the bottom of it? Unscathed? That's for you to find out!

This book has multiple characters, so please do read/listen with slight concentration. Since I was listening, I made a quick note of who was who so that I could remember at the end of the narration. This a good story line and well narrated across points of view and timelines. It is not one of those run of the mills detective stories, but do feel it could have shortened some of the chapters towards the middle. I was beginning to feel frustrated to get to the bottom of it. It is well written and quite good as a debut novel by the author.