Friday, July 11, 2008

Irrational Numbers-Robert Spiller

Irrational Numbers
Robert Spiller
Medallion, Sep 2008, $$7.95
ISBN: 9781933836881

Five years ago at his high school graduation, the most popular male Leo Quinn the Salutorian announced he was gay. The residents of East Plains, Colorado turn against the teen, feeling he was not the person they thought he was nor should be, One night on Squirrel Creek Road, his former classmates and friends, all homophobes, decide to play prank on him.. The next day his naked corpse is found with three bullets in the heart.

Math teacher Bonnie Pinkwater had Leo as a student and liked the teenager. The police question her as they found her phone number in his neatly folded pants lying next to his murdered body. Later at the rodeo Bonnie finds the dead body of a clown with bullet holes in the chest region just like Leo. Soon other young men are killed with ballistics proving the same gun being used. At Leo’s funeral, youth pastor Jason is shot; the critically wounded man was once Leo’s lover. Bonnie and her boss Principal Lloyd Whittaker investigate before the serial killer adds more young men to the deadly spree.

IRRATIONAL NUMBERS is a fascinating mystery due to the intense need for the protagonists to end the homicidal assault on the young. The sexual preference choices especially homosexuality is handled deftly so that the audience obtains a wide spectrum of reactions such as Leo’s father kicking him out of the house, but later demands justice for his son. Although educators turning into sleuths on a serial killing case seem as if 1 and 1 makes 3l fans will appreciate this riveting whodunit that takes a deep look at the impact of coming out of the closet.

Harriet Klausner

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