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Tom Mason and Scott Carpenter #4
The Principal Cause of Death
The latest in the Lambda Literary Award-winning Tom and Scott series. When schoolteacher Tom Mason is accused of killing the high scool principal, Tom and his lover, Scott Carpenter, set out to catch the murderer and prove Tom's innocence.
182 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
3 people are currently reading
48 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.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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February 7, 2026DNF @ p. 39. Hokey but likable. Charmingly dated. DNFing because I get the gist, and there’s nothing about this mystery that personally interests me enough to keep going.
August 25, 2019
Zubro phones this one in. The ending was so tame and anticlimactic compared to the machinations the main characters went through to get to the final pages of the book.
I am having problems with all these stories centered around the high school where Tom teaches. Wow. That is one incredibly unsafe school. In the real world, there would be police officers stationed at each hallway. Another problem I have is how uneven Tom's character is. He presents himself as being the essential caring teacher who supports his students when others won't. Yet, in this book his thoughts concerning the problem student and his fellow teachers I found reprehensible. He is a violent man who struggles and quite often fails to control his violent tendencies. All these things, added to the way in which the plot plays out, made this a very ho-hum read. On the plus side, this was a quick read. For all that's worth.
I am having problems with all these stories centered around the high school where Tom teaches. Wow. That is one incredibly unsafe school. In the real world, there would be police officers stationed at each hallway. Another problem I have is how uneven Tom's character is. He presents himself as being the essential caring teacher who supports his students when others won't. Yet, in this book his thoughts concerning the problem student and his fellow teachers I found reprehensible. He is a violent man who struggles and quite often fails to control his violent tendencies. All these things, added to the way in which the plot plays out, made this a very ho-hum read. On the plus side, this was a quick read. For all that's worth.
February 22, 2023
When Tom Mason finds the school principal dead, all fingers point in his direction. Weirdly I found this instalment somewhat forgettable. I think it was missing the spark of the Chicago "gaydom", which added a lot of personality to the first three books. There were some genuinely sad moments like Tom reflecting on everything he lost in the arson attack, but I'm also growing kind of concerned about his obsession with taking risks and putting Scott in danger, and it seems he's losing control of his emotions much more in this book. If I didn't know better, I'd assume this is his corruption arc. I also felt the quality of dialogue especially from the teenagers has suffered compared to how well it was portrayed in the first book. With that said, this remains a highly readable/bingeable series.
May 15, 2021
3/3.5*
Another cozy mystery for Tom and Scott, with the victim and suspects all at Tom’s school with Tom in pole position.
At nearly 30 years since it was written, I do have to remind myself to read with that in mind. Dealing with children, language, social interactions were all different .
Lots of potential suspects all with dubious reasons to kill, Tom and Scott TSTLing all over the place but ultimately narrowing down to the real culprit.
Another cozy mystery for Tom and Scott, with the victim and suspects all at Tom’s school with Tom in pole position.
At nearly 30 years since it was written, I do have to remind myself to read with that in mind. Dealing with children, language, social interactions were all different .
Lots of potential suspects all with dubious reasons to kill, Tom and Scott TSTLing all over the place but ultimately narrowing down to the real culprit.
December 14, 2017
Very good
Active all the way through, emotional both good and bad. One of Zubro's best efforts. The ending had many twists and characters all were fleshed out. No one dimensional characters you could feel sorry for all.
Active all the way through, emotional both good and bad. One of Zubro's best efforts. The ending had many twists and characters all were fleshed out. No one dimensional characters you could feel sorry for all.
September 17, 2023
Is this series old enough to be called a classic yet? Doesn't really matter because it is so good. I have always loved who-done-its. And Zubro is a master story teller. I think my next marathon read will be the Tom and Scott series. After that I will be revisiting the Paul Turner series.
May 12, 2024
The story is a little unbelievable, they should completely burn this school down if it was even a little true. But I like the main characters and the book is well written. It is nice to see a positive representation of a happy gay couple. I will read more to see how the other books evolve.
April 1, 2025
Usually I would strongly recommend this author’s works very but this one just did not click well with me. The main character’s actions felt contrived and the dialogue was poor. I do recommend others in the series though
October 30, 2015
Being the Principal at Tom's high school is a little like teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Not a lot of job security or longevity in either position. In this the fourth book of the series, the principal is murdered and Tom is a suspect.
Zubro also makes the mysteries entertaining and, he tosses in enough twist and turns to keep the reader guessing. Tom is extremely angry at being a suspect and being questioned by the police. He has solved enough murders to know that someone who argued with the victim shortly before their death and discovered the body is always a suspect. It wasn't personal but police procedure. Tom's anger was the on thing I didn't like about the book. It bordered on arrogance.... how dare they accuse me type thing.
I really like how Tom & Scott's relationship has developed. With each book Zuburo, allows us to see a bit more of them on a personal level and their relationship. (Scott giving Tom a stuffed Eyeore early in their relationship was just cute.)
Zubro also makes the mysteries entertaining and, he tosses in enough twist and turns to keep the reader guessing. Tom is extremely angry at being a suspect and being questioned by the police. He has solved enough murders to know that someone who argued with the victim shortly before their death and discovered the body is always a suspect. It wasn't personal but police procedure. Tom's anger was the on thing I didn't like about the book. It bordered on arrogance.... how dare they accuse me type thing.
I really like how Tom & Scott's relationship has developed. With each book Zuburo, allows us to see a bit more of them on a personal level and their relationship. (Scott giving Tom a stuffed Eyeore early in their relationship was just cute.)
December 3, 2014
This was a basic murder mystery. Nothing earth shattering but an easy, 182 page read. I liked that it took place in Chicago and the south suburbs where I grew up. I may check to see if this authors previous books are at my local library.
February 18, 2012
Good gay mystery in which Tom has an altercation with a student and accused of murder.
November 21, 2012
Tom is harassed by the high school bully. Typical Tom and Scott murder mystery.
February 26, 2013
I really enjoyed this exciting mystery. The characters were well rounded and the dialog believable.
March 14, 2016
Loved this book
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews