High School Senior Ruth Willows meets Ken Silver, a drop-dead sexy cowboy at a local barn and they soon fall madly in love. But Ruth is mortified to learn on the first day of her senior year that Ken is the schoolâs new English teacher. Realizing the conflict of interest, Ken tells her they canât see each other anymore. Just when Ruth thinks her life couldnât get any worse, she finds the schoolâs accountant shot dead in the schoolâs darkroom. But even that pales when, by accident, Ruth picks up a file the accountant left on a desk just before his untimely death. The file contains proof that someone is embezzling from the school. Could the embezzler be the murderer? The complexities of love entwine with a murder mystery in this debut novel by PC Feather.
High School Senior Ruth Willows meets Ken Silver, a drop-dead sexy cowboy at a local barn and they soon fall madly in love. But Ruth is mortified to learn on the first day of her senior year that Ken is the schoolâs new English teacher. Realizing the conflict of interest, Ken tells her they canât see each other anymore. Just when Ruth thinks her life couldnât get any worse, she finds the schoolâs accountant shot dead in the schoolâs darkroom. But even that pales when, by accident, Ruth picks up a file the accountant left on a desk just before his untimely death. The file contains proof that someone is embezzling from the school. Could the embezzler be the murderer? The complexities of love entwine with a murder mystery in this debut novel by PC Feather.
The slap of his dress shoes hitting the pavement quickened along with his breath. As
Hector Alverez yanked on Golden Valley High Schoolâs small blue employees-only door, the force of his pull almost sent the papers in his awkwardly held manila folder flying. Clutching at them like a newborn, he caught them, heaved a deep sigh, and stumbled through the door.
During summer break, the halls were unlit, and the main office glowed from a solitary, overhead fluorescent. The two secretariesâ desks were unoccupied. One was neat and tidy. The other looked as though a twister had hit it, leaving scattered papers, files, and paperclips in its wake. Hectorâs gut sank when he saw the frosted glass windows of Principal Rodriguezâs office were black. He turned when he heard someone fumbling under an old copier machine.
âPaperâs jammed,â a loud cheerful voice rang out. âGoes to figure. I try to get some work done when I can have the copier all to myself, and the paper jams or the toner leaks or some other stupid problem.â
Hector had no clue what to say to this creature; a woman clad in blue jeans, a grey hoodie, and oversized ball cap.
âI ... I ... I have an eight a.m. appointment with Principal...â he petered out. Her unexpected presence threw off his concentration.
âHeâll be back any minute, honey. Rodriguez came in a little bit ago and turned right around. Said he had left somethinâ at home. He told me to tell anyone lookinâ for him heâd be back in twenty. Then my paper jammed, and Iâve been fiddlinâ with this darn machine ever since.â She pulled out a piece of crumpled paper and presented it as evidence to Hector.
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Tall Willows
âWill you gimme a hand, honey,â she continued, âsince you have to wait anyways? Thereâs a box of colored copy paper in the storage closet. Trouble is, the lights donât work too good and when the door shuts, it goes pitch black in there. If you hold the door for me, I might be able to make some copies before the morningâs over.â
Hector didnât want to help, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door. âI need to wait for Principal Rodriguez,â he said.
âWeâll be done before he gets back,â she said, âthe closetâs just down the hall.â Hector distractedly dropped his thick manila folder on the nearest desk before she
whisked him out the door.
She led him down the dim, locker-lined corridors of the old high school. They turned a
corner and entered a newer and brighter addition that offered a picturesque view of the Southern Colorado Rockies through oversized double glass doors. The schoolâs football, baseball, and track fields stretched out until they touched the majestic mountains.
Hector paused in front of the doors to admire the beautiful scenery. He realized he had gone over the schoolâs budget with a fine-toothed comb but couldnât recall spending reports for the athletics department. More money went to sports than math, art and, music combined. It wouldnât be surprising if Coach Wayne got greedy, felt like he deserved a little more than everyone else. Wayne would be the first person Hector looked into after he met with Rodriguez.
Hector looked at his watch, eight-O-five, now he was late for his meeting. âI have to go. I must speak with Principal Rodriguez.â
From the stairwell, the woman called as she glided up the stairs, âThe closetâs just up here, honey. Besides, I donât see his car in the parking lot yet.â
She was right. The principalâs parking spot in the lot below remained empty.
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by PCFeather
Tall Willows
âIf you just hold this door for me, you can be on your way, and I wonât bother you anymore,â She called down from the top of the stairs.
Hector climbed the stairs and joined her outside a door. Black painted letters on it said DARKROOM.
âItâs just storage now,â she chattered. âThe box of colored paper is on a shelf in the back. Iâll hold the door open, and you grab it for me.â She stood firm by the door, not moving to go inside.
Hector decided to get the paper so he could get back to the office and on with his meeting. His hand patted the wall for a light switch. He flicked it on. Only a dim red glow emanated from the back of the closet. He flicked the adjacent switch, and a florescent weakly flickered. Hector shuffled through the small cramped closet. He only saw old camera equipment and film developing chemicals.
âMaâam, I donât see a box of paper,â he called to her.
âI know itâs in there! Check under the shelf!â she demanded, her voice taking on a distinct edge.
He didnât have time to protest. The lights went out; the door clicked shut, and the sudden darkness blinded him. He assumed he was alone in the pitch-black closet when the red light flicked on. A bright flash produced an ear-splitting sound. His thigh burned in intense pain. He grabbed his leg; it was warm and wet. What the... His mind raced. Is this... blood? Hector didnât have time to form another thought before the second bullet penetrated his skull.Â
Tall Willows is an exhilarating young adult novel full of mystery, town secrets, great characters, and a suspenseful romance that you wouldn't expect to happen. P.C. Feather is an unfamiliar author for me, but I love reading a mysterious, suspenseful murder mystery novel full of unexcepted plot twists that will keep my eyes glued to the page. I truly enjoyed reading this book despite being confused at the beginning of the story. The story begins with a school's administrative assistant leading the school's accountant into the abandoned darkroom that used to be used by the photography classes to help her gather office supplies. Suddenly, Hector A., the accountant, can't see when he climbs the ladder to reach the self to grab a package of copy paper. Then, the authors use onomatopoeia to showcase the accountant being shot and left for dead inside the darkroom.Â
After chapter one, the reader is introduced to the protagonist, Ruth Willows. A seventeen-year-old young woman who is smart and loves to ride horses at her grandfather's ranch. Every year, her grandfather's ranch hosts a rodeo where all the riders compete with their horses. One day, while Ruth was taking care of her horse, her eyes laid on a tall, handsome cowboy named Ken. After they run into each other at the local university where Ruth is in an honors program where she is taking a college credited course while entering her senior year of high school, they become more friendly and begin flirting.Â
Ken falls madly in love with Ruth by the time summer is over, but he doesn't know she is a senior in high school, and Ruth doesn't know that Ken holds a master's degree and accepted a teaching position at her high school. I have mixed feelings about Ken and Ruth's relationship. I can see the connection between them, and they care for each other, but I don't know how I feel about the age differences. Working in the education field, I know that it is unethical to have a romantic relationship with a student, so my jaw dropped when I learned that he is her English teacher. I sensed that Ken was older than Ruth, but I didn't know by how much, and they both didn't tell each other about themselves very much before they started falling for each other.Â
I appreciate the author keeping the romantic scenes clean; I am not fond of romantic stories with explicit content and details about the characters' intimacy. It's not my cup of tea.Â
Ken and Ruth battle their feelings when he learns she is his English student and verse versa. They stay their distance, but I am not sure how long they can go without looking into each other's eyes and spending time with one another. Ruth's senior year gets more intense when she finds a discrepancy in the school district's financial records when she askes permission to review the files for a math project. Ruth and her friend, Paloma, act like Nancy Drew when they discover a dead body in the darkroom, and another teacher ends up dead. Then, they learn that someone in the high school is embezzling almost a million dollars. This story has a lot of juicy, suspenseful plot twists.Â
The author does a beautiful job developing the characters. They are full of personality and truly fit the story. I love the author's writing style and how she uses descriptive words and literary elements to feature the story's settings and what is happening with the character's life.Â
This story is a well-written murder mystery. I found it to be page-gripping and captivating. Each chapter moves the plot along, and the reader gets to learn more information about what is happening with the school's staff and the clues that lead to you trying to figure out what character killed the accountant and the music teacher.Â
My only negative comment is when I first began reading the story, I felt like two different storylines were happening; one with a staff member of the school being murdered and another one with Ruth and her romantic relationship with Ken. I couldn't see the relation between the two until I got to about chapter five or six. But as you keep reading, you understand what is happening better. This is a fascinating mystery story with a unique twist of a young woman falling in love with her English teacher.Â
Also, it is challenging to figure out who is a murderer, which is the best part about a murder mystery when you can't figure it out until the very last page.Â
Can Ken and Ruth have a romantic relationship? Will Ruth and her best friend discover the school's secrets? Who is the murderer behind all of this?Â
Read Tall Willows to discover the character behind all of the chaos at Golden Valley High School. If you love reading murder mysteries with romance in the mix, you will love this fantastic story by P.C. Feather.Â