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A review by bookworm_94
The Teacher by Katerina Diamond
5.0
This is how you make a grand entrance on the crime fiction’s scene – with a bang, such as The Teacher!
After reading all of her books (most of them more than twice), I can tell you that the thing about Katerina Diamond is: she’s fucking amazing! Period.
I stumbled across The Teacher in a charity shop about a year ago (I like to give books a second chance; I believe many of them bloody deserve it). As soon as I read the back cover, I knew this was so my cup of tea. Had to have it, had to read it. I went straight home and started reading in anticipation to be blown away. And, man, was I blown away… Finished it in less than two days (even thought about calling in sick at work, unable to put it down, but, you know, being a grown-up and all that…) Anyway, whoever dropped it at that charity shop must have been out of their goddamn fucking mind!
I had never read anything like The Teacher before. Its boldness shocked me. Its brilliance amazed me. Its suspense left me turning the pages breathless, hungry for answers as there was this voice at the back of my mind, constantly screaming: “What the Hell’s gonna happen next?!”
Can’t speak about anybody else, but I found myself guessing over and over again what twists I was about to face at the end (it’s part of the entertainment for me). The brilliance in Diamond’s books, I believe, comes from the fact that she is capable of telling you the story while, hand in hand, she takes you to the last few pages, where the curtain finally falls and everything is revealed. I was untangling the knots with the main characters - DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles – every step of the way. So much fun!
Speaking of DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles, I just want to say: Hats off to you, Katerina Diamond, for such excellent character developments and character background stories. Now, this is how you create a damn good character and bring them to life! Of course, we don’t get to find everything about those two in 10 pages, which is the beauty of it. At the beginning of The Teacher they are presented to us as two individuals, whose paths cross in Exeter Police Station as they are being partnered up, working on this brutal murder case together. As the book progresses and the story develops, their mutual trust grows, they get to know each other and we get to slowly, but surely, fall in love with them. (At least I know I did, but I’d be surprised if other fans disagree with this statement.)
As much as I adore Imogen and Adrian, I appreciate the fact that they are not hogging off all of the spot light. There are chapters in Diamond’s books (The Teacher and her following novels), which are written from other characters’ POVs (victims, suspects, criminals, etc.). I absolutely love that method, because that way she not only introduces those characters, who color the pages with their personalities, but also allows us to get into their heads, to understand the motives, driving them, to experience their emotions and even to relate to them in one way or another. Diamond gives them a voice of their own (like Abby in The Teacher, for instance) and a story to tell, and for that I applaud her. I think it makes the books even more moving, appealing and entertaining.
Another thing that I wish to praise Diamond for is the main story line (the backbone of the series), as well as the separate plots in each of the six currently released publications. Even though The Teacher and all her other books tell a story on their own and present a different, blood-freezing murder case, which shakes up the peace and quiet in Exeter, Adrian and Imogen’s presence in every novel is what connects them together perfectly. We get to follow the development of their lives and their friendship as they work on every case together throughout The Secret, The Angel, etc. and we also get to learn a lot about their life before The Teacher. Therefore, The Teacher, as well as all the rest of Diamond’s novels, could be read as a stand-alone fiction, but I would strongly recommend that you treated them as series. They are ten times more intense and influential together rather than on their own!
To conclude (otherwise this review will end up 5000 words long and nobody will ever read it), The Teacher is a thrilling masterpiece, which deserves all the praises that it has received since its release in 2016! It is a book, which will linger in the back of your mind for days, even weeks, after you finish it. Its skillfully created plot and easily-relatable main character will remind you that life is not only black and white and that we, as human beings, often find ourselves in the gray area.
After reading all of her books (most of them more than twice), I can tell you that the thing about Katerina Diamond is: she’s fucking amazing! Period.
I stumbled across The Teacher in a charity shop about a year ago (I like to give books a second chance; I believe many of them bloody deserve it). As soon as I read the back cover, I knew this was so my cup of tea. Had to have it, had to read it. I went straight home and started reading in anticipation to be blown away. And, man, was I blown away… Finished it in less than two days (even thought about calling in sick at work, unable to put it down, but, you know, being a grown-up and all that…) Anyway, whoever dropped it at that charity shop must have been out of their goddamn fucking mind!
I had never read anything like The Teacher before. Its boldness shocked me. Its brilliance amazed me. Its suspense left me turning the pages breathless, hungry for answers as there was this voice at the back of my mind, constantly screaming: “What the Hell’s gonna happen next?!”
Can’t speak about anybody else, but I found myself guessing over and over again what twists I was about to face at the end (it’s part of the entertainment for me). The brilliance in Diamond’s books, I believe, comes from the fact that she is capable of telling you the story while, hand in hand, she takes you to the last few pages, where the curtain finally falls and everything is revealed. I was untangling the knots with the main characters - DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles – every step of the way. So much fun!
Speaking of DS Imogen Grey and DS Adrian Miles, I just want to say: Hats off to you, Katerina Diamond, for such excellent character developments and character background stories. Now, this is how you create a damn good character and bring them to life! Of course, we don’t get to find everything about those two in 10 pages, which is the beauty of it. At the beginning of The Teacher they are presented to us as two individuals, whose paths cross in Exeter Police Station as they are being partnered up, working on this brutal murder case together. As the book progresses and the story develops, their mutual trust grows, they get to know each other and we get to slowly, but surely, fall in love with them. (At least I know I did, but I’d be surprised if other fans disagree with this statement.)
As much as I adore Imogen and Adrian, I appreciate the fact that they are not hogging off all of the spot light. There are chapters in Diamond’s books (The Teacher and her following novels), which are written from other characters’ POVs (victims, suspects, criminals, etc.). I absolutely love that method, because that way she not only introduces those characters, who color the pages with their personalities, but also allows us to get into their heads, to understand the motives, driving them, to experience their emotions and even to relate to them in one way or another. Diamond gives them a voice of their own (like Abby in The Teacher, for instance) and a story to tell, and for that I applaud her. I think it makes the books even more moving, appealing and entertaining.
Another thing that I wish to praise Diamond for is the main story line (the backbone of the series), as well as the separate plots in each of the six currently released publications. Even though The Teacher and all her other books tell a story on their own and present a different, blood-freezing murder case, which shakes up the peace and quiet in Exeter, Adrian and Imogen’s presence in every novel is what connects them together perfectly. We get to follow the development of their lives and their friendship as they work on every case together throughout The Secret, The Angel, etc. and we also get to learn a lot about their life before The Teacher. Therefore, The Teacher, as well as all the rest of Diamond’s novels, could be read as a stand-alone fiction, but I would strongly recommend that you treated them as series. They are ten times more intense and influential together rather than on their own!
To conclude (otherwise this review will end up 5000 words long and nobody will ever read it), The Teacher is a thrilling masterpiece, which deserves all the praises that it has received since its release in 2016! It is a book, which will linger in the back of your mind for days, even weeks, after you finish it. Its skillfully created plot and easily-relatable main character will remind you that life is not only black and white and that we, as human beings, often find ourselves in the gray area.