Lockdown by Laurie R King - 4****

[Book Concierge]

Lockdown – Laurie R King
4****

King is probably best known for her Mary Russell series, but this is a stand-alone psychological thriller. As the title implies, it focuses on an incident at a school – Guadalupe Middle School in San Felipe, California. The action follows the characters on one particular day, “Career Day,” when Principal Linda McDonald will bring in a variety of adults to talk to the students about various career options. King gives us a timeline for each chapter, taking us from just after midnight to shortly after 1:00 p.m. The narration moves from character to character by chapter as well.

In addition to Linda, the reader learns something about her husband Gordon, Police Detective Olivia Mendez, the coach, the school janitor, a couple of the parents, and several of the students. In the back of everyone’s mind is the recent disappearance of Bee Cuomo, a sixth grader, and the previous year’s shooting death of Gloria Rivas. One child, in particular, is planning a large and important gesture on Career Day, and with all these threads of tension, King keeps the reader guessing as to what might happen.

I thought a couple of the elements of the plot’s ending were just too conveniently pat, but I was still entertained throughout. My F2F book club will be discussing this book in March, and I’m eager to hear what others thought of it.



LINK to my review

[Jason]

This was recommended to me and is on my TBR. I am glad you enjoyed it. I will get to it eventually. I didn't read the review because I didn't want it to ruin any part of the book. I am not 100% sure what the book is about and that is how I like going into books.