Number of Book #25
Date Began and Finished 4/23 - 4/25 2008
Genre - Christian Fiction
Year It Was Published - October 2007
Publisher - Bethany House
Number of Pages 364
Trade Paperback
Reason for reading: Review for Curled Up
Rating 4/5 stars
Blurb or Synopsis: Elizabeth Gunnar is going back to the school she attended many years ago. She's returning to Seaton Preparatory School as an English teacher, and she has a lot of misgivings about it. Still, she finds that she enjoys teaching there, but there are memories that are making this return somewhat uncomfortable for her.
When she was a student at Seaton, she and her friends admired and loved an English teacher named Mr Dutton, a Vietnam Vet that seemed well-adjusted after the war, but was still probably harboring a lot of the trauma in his mind. it was during one night that Elizabeth and her friends lose Mr Dutton, but the school officials cover up the story and tells the student body that Mr Dutton is recovering from a heart attack and is not going to return to their school. Elizabeth and her friends believe that Mr Dutton is dead, but they do not have any real proof except what the saw that one night when their lives were changed forever.
In the meantime, Elizabeth catches up again with some of the old gang from her Seaton days, including Ray, who she once was involved during their time when their days were filled with Mr Dutton's words. Ray has two children from a marriage that didn't work out, and Elizabeth and Ray decide to renew their relationship and see where it leads them. She questions Ray about Mr Dutton, but Ray doesn't want to have anything to do with that past. He refuses to talk to her about it, and wants to move on.
A student of Elizabeth's, Satchel Queen, is having a hard time in school and for some reason Elizabeth feels compelled to know the girl better. Elizabeth sees that Satchel has a talent for writing, and soon she takes the troubled teen under her wings.
There are a few major spoilers that I want to write but will not, but they are the key to this story and help resolve the story of Mr Dutton as well as Satchel's. There's a lot of drama in this book with the mystery behind Mr Dutton's disappearance, as well as Elizabeth's need to find out the truth behind him. Her relationship with Satchel is another primary story line, and that inevitably links up with Mr Dutton's story. I think this was one of Ann Tatlock's better novels, and I recommend it.
(For those who are not readers of Christian fiction, I feel that this is a book that all readers can enjoy. Elizabeth does have a religious faith that she has neglected, and that is mentioned in the story, but over all the emphasis on Christian fiction is downplayed, and only brought up minimally towards the last half of the book.
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