Hello! My name is Liz Hopewell, and my superpower is teaching English. This year alone, I convinced an entire class of high school kids that Spark Notes had omitted several enjoyable bits from The Catcher in the Rye. I’m also a formidable opponent at Scrabble tournaments and Jane Austen trivia contests. Had my husband signed me up for one of those, I’d have been the first in line to participate. Unfortunately, he opted instead to pay for golf lessons, a birthday present that was right up there with the week we spent camping in a field of poison ivy. Somehow, George failed to notice, in all the years we’d been married, that I was a terrible athlete, disliked the outdoors, and possessed not a single outfit that would enable me to fit in at the fancy country club he joined.

I showed up at my first golf lesson in yoga pants, which my favorite online retailer promised would take me from work to play without anyone noticing they were unsuitable to either. With my black hair and black clothes, I looked like a dark exclamation point at the end of a flowery and fair-haired sentence. Undeterred, I followed the instructor’s directions and gave it my best shot. What I didn’t know, is that while I was whiffing away on the driving range, someone had stolen one of my clubs and, with greater accuracy, had put a dent in Elliot Tumbleson’s head.

Elliot died on the anniversary of my mother’s death. My sister believes this tragic coincidence is a Sign from the Universe, telling us we should investigate both his murder and my mother’s fatal car accident. I, however, have zero interest in digging up family secrets. It was an ironic twist of fate that another kid lost his parent on the date we lost ours. Not a call to action. I’ve got a job, two kids, and an increasingly distant husband to deal with. The last thing I want is to revisit our tortured past.

And yet, here I am, driving from suburban New Jersey to Brooklyn, and headed to a neighborhood where every landmark brings back unwelcome memories. To be fair, having a career criminal as a father does come with some benefits. I learned to pick locks, stave off creditors, and break noses. That last part is easier than most people realize, even when you’re a mild-mannered English teacher, who is prouder of her A+ in Metaphysical Poetry than her ability to fence stolen goods.

But all that illegal stuff is in the past. I’ve erased every bit of the old me, including the Brooklyn accent that would never pass muster at the country club. I’m pretty sure my father is dead, although opinions are mixed on whether or not he’s still kicking. Dead or alive, my sister wants to know if he killed our mother. There are other suspects, and against my better judgment, that’s why I’m trolling for gang members and not doing laundry or grading papers.

I’m not smart enough to go it alone. Neither is my sister, but we do have help. And while none of my sources exists outside the pages of the books I love, that doesn’t make them any less relevant.

Talk about homework assignments.

Study Guide for Murder, A Master Class Mystery Book 2
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: September 2024
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

Murder has no place in Liz Hopewell’s perfect suburban life. She left her complicated past behind when she moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey, and she’s determined to forget the violence that shadowed her early years. As an English teacher, wife, and mother, Liz now confines her fascination with existential dread to classroom discussions about Frankenstein and Hamlet. But violence follows her from the mean streets of her childhood home to the manicured lawns of suburbia when Elliot Tumbleson’s head has an unfortunate and deadly encounter with a golf club. Her golf club.

A second murder, a case of mistaken identity, and a rollicking trip back to her childhood home all point to one prime suspect in each crime. Liz embarks upon a double investigation of homicides past and present, using her gift for literary theory to unearth clues that she finds as compelling as forensic evidence. But the killers, like her students, don’t always read to the end.

About the author
Lori Robbins writes the On Pointe and Master Class mystery series and is a contributor to The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers Cookbook. She won two Silver Falchions, the Indie Award for Best Mystery, and second place in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Mystery and Suspense. Lori is a co-president of the New York / Tristate Sisters in Crime and an active member of MWA.

You can find her at lorirobbins.com.