The Crazy School

From the acclaimed author of A Field of Darkness comes another fabulous crime novel featuring the acerbically funny voice of sparky ex-debutante Madeline Dare.

Madeline Dare has finally escaped rust-belt Syracuse, New York with her husband, Dean, and they're headed for the lush Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts. But when Dean's job offer there falls through, Maddie has to scramble for a job, signing on as a teacher at an academy for disturbed teenagers.

Behind the Santangelo Academy's ornate gates, Maddie discovers a disturbing realm where students and teachers alike must submit to the founder's bizarre therapeutic regimen. From day one, Maddie feels uneasy about the smooth-talking Dr Santangelo. But when she questions his unorthodox approach, she's appalled to find her fellow teachers turning on each other rather than protecting the students in their care.

A chilling event confirms Maddie's worst fears, and hints at an even darker secret history, one that goes to the academy's very heart. Cut off fromt he outside world, Maddie must join forces with a small band of school's most violently rebellious students whose troubled grip on reality may well prove to be her only chance of salvation.

Cornelia Read was born and raised in the US by divorced hippie-renegade parents. Her childhood mentors included Sufis, surfers, single moms, Black Panthers, Ansel Adams, draft dodgers, striking farmworkers, and Henry Miller's toughest ping-pong rival. She lives in California and is married to a lovely sane man who is gainfully employed. They have twin daughters, one of whom is autistic.

"Funny and twisted" - the New York Times

"She is a real find: she is a crime writer with individuality, intelligence and style and with a very unusual take on the criminal mind and the criminal heart" -SMH

The Crazy School
Allen & Unwin
Author: Cornelia Read
ISBN: 9781741755053
RRP: $29.95