What do you think?
Rate this book
Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter #12
Schooled in Murder
Tom Mason, Chicago area high school teacher, has been teaching at Grover Cleveland High School for a while - long enough to loathe the faculty meetings and long enough to know that as bad as they are, they aren't fatal. Usually. Having had all he can take of the endless bickering, picking and factional disputes, he sneaks out of the meeting for a short break only to find the meeting over when he returns, the usual suspects having departed to the four winds. Having decided that this was a sign of his good fortune, he decides to see if the stockroom actually has the supplies he needs. What he finds there however is a trysting couple in the dark (one married, the other not) and, once the light is turned on, a dead body in the corner. The body is that of one of his colleagues who stormed out of the faculty meeting earlier, a blackboard eraser stuffed into her lifeless mouth. Having disappeared from the meeting at roughly the same time, Tom finds himself in the unwelcome position of prime suspect and with the help of his husband, former baseball player Scott Carpenter, he'll have to figure out who really killed the other teacher before the crime is pinned on him.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published July 8, 2008
6 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Mark Richard Zubro
48 books50 followersAuthor also writes as: Mark Zubro.
Mark Richard Zubro is an American mystery novelist. He lives in Mokena, Illinois and taught 8th grade English at Summit Hill Jr. High in nearby Frankfort Square, Illinois.
Zubro writes bestselling mysteries set in Chicago and the surrounding Cook County area, which are widely praised as fast-paced, with interesting plots and well-rounded, likeable characters. His novels feature gay themes, and Zubro is himself gay.
His longest running series features high school teacher Tom Mason, and Tom's boyfriend, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter. The other series Zubro is known for is the Paul Turner mysteries, which are about a Chicago police detective. The books are a part of the Stonewall Inn Mystery series, published by St. Martin's Press. Zubro won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's Mystery for his book A Simple Suburban Murder.
Series:
* Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter
* Paul Turner
I am the author of twenty-four mystery novels and five short stories. My book A Simple Suburban Murder won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery. I also wrote a thriller, Foolproof, with two other mystery writers, Jeanne Dams and Barb D'Amato. I taught eighth graders English and reading for thirty-four years and was president of the teachers' union in my district from 1985 until 2006. I retired from teaching in 2006 and now spend my time reading, writing, napping, and eating chocolate. My newest book, Another Dead Republican, is my thirteenth book in the Tom and Scott series which features as main characters, a gay school teacher and his lover, a professional baseball player. One of the keys in my mysteries is you do not want to be a person who is racist, sexist, homophobic, or a school administrator. If you are any of those, it is likely you are the corpse, or, at the least, it can be fairly well guaranteed that bad things will happen to you by the end. And if in my books you happen to be a Republican and/or against workers' rights, it would be far better if you did not make a habit of broadcasting this. If you did, you're quite likely to be a suspect, or worse.
Mark Richard Zubro is an American mystery novelist. He lives in Mokena, Illinois and taught 8th grade English at Summit Hill Jr. High in nearby Frankfort Square, Illinois.
Zubro writes bestselling mysteries set in Chicago and the surrounding Cook County area, which are widely praised as fast-paced, with interesting plots and well-rounded, likeable characters. His novels feature gay themes, and Zubro is himself gay.
His longest running series features high school teacher Tom Mason, and Tom's boyfriend, professional baseball player Scott Carpenter. The other series Zubro is known for is the Paul Turner mysteries, which are about a Chicago police detective. The books are a part of the Stonewall Inn Mystery series, published by St. Martin's Press. Zubro won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's Mystery for his book A Simple Suburban Murder.
Series:
* Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter
* Paul Turner
I am the author of twenty-four mystery novels and five short stories. My book A Simple Suburban Murder won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men's mystery. I also wrote a thriller, Foolproof, with two other mystery writers, Jeanne Dams and Barb D'Amato. I taught eighth graders English and reading for thirty-four years and was president of the teachers' union in my district from 1985 until 2006. I retired from teaching in 2006 and now spend my time reading, writing, napping, and eating chocolate. My newest book, Another Dead Republican, is my thirteenth book in the Tom and Scott series which features as main characters, a gay school teacher and his lover, a professional baseball player. One of the keys in my mysteries is you do not want to be a person who is racist, sexist, homophobic, or a school administrator. If you are any of those, it is likely you are the corpse, or, at the least, it can be fairly well guaranteed that bad things will happen to you by the end. And if in my books you happen to be a Republican and/or against workers' rights, it would be far better if you did not make a habit of broadcasting this. If you did, you're quite likely to be a suspect, or worse.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 28, 2018
sadly I find it hard to limit disgust for this trash
I loved this series when I first found it, I desperately wanted sign of a normal life. With out sex beating us over the head. then Another dead Drag queen I felt I was being beat over the head on a clue. I stopped reading. I started again this was non stop propaganda and it came out in 2008. I'd wondered what happened to the LGBTQ community how in a decade did we destroy so much. this shows a certain decision to embrace the sickest form of propaganda I ever saw. No wonder the left insists on safe spaces and we got stuck with Trump. The left has much to make up for. I can only hope the delusion of our leaders will not damage the success won since Stone wall riots. I'm 50 years old I've never be more disappointed in my community. I'm beginning to understand this book Hollywood and Washington has sold us all down the river I only hope LGBT Community does not pay too high a price for what the leaders have done to us. I will do my best to undo the damage it was my generation that screwed up. God this book disgusted me.
I loved this series when I first found it, I desperately wanted sign of a normal life. With out sex beating us over the head. then Another dead Drag queen I felt I was being beat over the head on a clue. I stopped reading. I started again this was non stop propaganda and it came out in 2008. I'd wondered what happened to the LGBTQ community how in a decade did we destroy so much. this shows a certain decision to embrace the sickest form of propaganda I ever saw. No wonder the left insists on safe spaces and we got stuck with Trump. The left has much to make up for. I can only hope the delusion of our leaders will not damage the success won since Stone wall riots. I'm 50 years old I've never be more disappointed in my community. I'm beginning to understand this book Hollywood and Washington has sold us all down the river I only hope LGBT Community does not pay too high a price for what the leaders have done to us. I will do my best to undo the damage it was my generation that screwed up. God this book disgusted me.
April 14, 2022
A bit too convoluted with all the school admins, teacher factions for me - possibly because it is a foreign system to me and I don’t think (could be wrong!) there are so many layers here, but it all got a bit boggy for me.
The actual who dunit elements were OK, and again Tom was main guy with Scott as a support.
The actual who dunit elements were OK, and again Tom was main guy with Scott as a support.
August 1, 2024
Sooooo boring. All I could do was skip pages and yet the end was no where interesting. Also the word “Nazi” is used like 100 times through out the book which seemed so juvenile. Every one was a Nazi this and a Nazi that and a homophobe and so on and so so forth. Not a single redeemable thibg about this book.
October 20, 2019
This mystery was okay. I did get sucked in more than I thought I would by the end. I liked Tom Mason and his evenhanded honesty in the face of evil. The depths of evil portrayed were perhaps a bit hard to swallow, but other than that I liked this book.
August 11, 2017
Didn't care for it.
Wasn't sure who the characters were. I missed the first books in the series. On to something else now. 😃
Wasn't sure who the characters were. I missed the first books in the series. On to something else now. 😃
July 1, 2023
Although it picked up towards the end, this instalment felt convoluted and somewhat meandering. Not enough Scott,which is my usual reason for liking some of this series less.
January 16, 2024
Let’s just say they were literally in the closet.
October 16, 2008
A heavy-handed and boring polemic against school administrators, infighting amongst teachers, and standardized testing masquerading as a murder mystery. The seemingly-endless exposition and narrative rumination about teaching methods was dry and should have been replaced with action using the dictum of "Show us, don't tell us." The relationship with Tom and Scott was inconsequential and pushed so far in the background as to become unnecessary. The narrator was never described, so a new reader would have no way of knowing what he looked like. Finally, it became aggravating to be pounded ceaselessly with the fact that Tom was practically perfect in every way. The book should have been entitled, "A Gay Mary Poppins Saves the School and the World."
August 26, 2008
Once again the author had me hooked from the first page. An openly gay teacher at a school is found himself among two dead bodies. Did a teacher, administrator or student do it? That is what Tom is going to find out because he becomes a suspect. The next series of events and especially the outcome is mind blowing. I would recommend it to anyone because you would never think something like this could happen!
March 29, 2011
Reviewed at : Schooled In Murder
Reviewed on : 21 March 2011
I find that I don't like this book. Everything seems to be jumble up. Most of the male teachers seems to be homosexual while the female teachers are lesbian. Both groups also tend to be bi-sexual. There are no fidelity in marriage nor in couple/partners.
Reviewed on : 21 March 2011
I find that I don't like this book. Everything seems to be jumble up. Most of the male teachers seems to be homosexual while the female teachers are lesbian. Both groups also tend to be bi-sexual. There are no fidelity in marriage nor in couple/partners.
Read
August 2, 2011If there is one criticism of the Tom & Scott books (just having finished two), it's that there are so many characters, that you don't remember them all clearly or care all that much, when the murderer is revealed. I've read 20 of Zubro's books. This one read very fast. While I do enjoy this series, it's fair to say that his other series, the Paul Turner books.
March 10, 2012
Ok mystery in which Tom stumbles a dead body or two at school and is under suspicion for murder, with unsuspected enemies coming out of the woodwork. The whole thing with the blurb for this and the previous book saying that Scott is a former professional baseball player is beyond weird. Quote from the book itself: "Scott plays professional baseball." That seems pretty clear to me at least!
February 26, 2014
For over a year, I've been devouring the Tom and Scott mystery series, and enjoying them very much. Hard to believe that now that I'm finished with this novel, there is only one more book published ( so far). I'll hate to see these guys disappear.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews