Product Description

“With superb confidence, Lavender constructs a brilliant fictional web of lies, inventively warping the psychological thriller to fit the confines of a scholarly investigation.” —Kirkus Reviews


When the students in Winchester University’s Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term in six weeks, she will be murdered.

At first the students are as intrigued by the premise of their puzzle as they are wary of the strange and slightly creepy Professor Williams. But as they delve deeper into the mystery, they begin to wonder: Is the Polly story simply a logic exercise, designed to teach them rational thinking skills, or could it be something more sinister and dangerous?

The mystery soon takes over the lives of three students as they find disturbing connections between Polly and themselves. Characters that were supposedly fictitious begin to emerge in reality. Soon, the boundary between the classroom assignment and the real world becomes blurred—and the students wonder if it is their own lives they are being asked to save.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55967 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-19
• Released on: 2008-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
A complex conspiracy involving the writing of a book drives Lavender's compelling debut, a thriller that will strike some as a mix of John Fowles's The Magus and Stephen King's The Shining. At Indiana's Winchester University, three students—Brian House, Dennis Flaherty and Mary Butler—are taking Logic and Reasoning 204, taught by enigmatic Professor Williams. They quickly learn this is a course like no other. Their single assignment is to find a missing 18-year-old girl, Polly, in six weeks time—or else, Williams asserts, she will be murdered. Is this merely an academic exercise? As Williams produces clues, including photographs of Polly and her associates, the students begin to wonder where homework ends and actual homicide begins. Together with Brian and Dennis, Mary ventures off campus in search of Polly into a world of crumbling towns, decrepit trailers and hints at crimes old and new. A rapid-fire plot offsets thin characterization, though the conspiracy becomes so all-encompassing, so elaborate, that readers may feel a bit like Mary when baffled by her quest: This is what she felt like: led, played, not in control of anything she did. (Feb.)
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Review
"Obedience is evidence that crime fiction is hardly a played-out genre …. [G]rafts the world-turned-upside-down suspense of a Harlan Coben thriller to the hall-of-mirrors vertigo of a novel by Paul Auster …. [I]ts ultimate implications continue to spin out in a reader’s mind after the final page is turned."
—Wall Street Journal

“Authentic puzzle mysteries are an endangered species in these hectic times, so it’s a genuine, if slightly perverse, kick to follow every byzantine clue in this bizarre game…. If you solve this one without peeking at the last chapter, it's an automatic A.”
—New York Times Book Review

"Obedience is a fiendishly clever thriller, debut or no, and Lavender exhibits deft control at the wheel."
—Bookgasm.com

"Obedience is quite a twisty little number …. the taunting nature of the challenge is irresistible….”
—New York Daily News

“[T]his is one of those high-concept thrillers with a final twist that upends all expectations, filled with characters who are not what they seem.”
—Entertainment Weekly

An inspired thriller about cognitive dissonance, conjectural misdirection and the conspicuous dichotomy between academia and the real world."
—Kirkus Reviews

“Will Lavender stuns with this compelling thriller…. The surreal but believable landscape fairly bursts from its confines, goading the reader into finishing just one more page.”
—Louisville Courier-Journal

“It’s a terrific book, part cat-and-mouse mystery and part psychological study of group behavior…. [A] wonderful book with a strong emotional punch at the end.”
—St. Petersburg Times

“Lavender’s first novel suggests he has a bright future. The novel is briskly plotted with deft narrative. Obedience builds to a swirling conclusion. It becomes a place where morality is blurred and intentions drift astray.”
—Tampa Tribune

“In his tautly strung debut novel, Obedience, literature professor Will Lavender tears a page of out Milgram’s notebooks and sets into motion a chain of events that escalates far beyond its intended intellectual exercise. . . . Mystery fans will be satisfied to hang on around the story’s hairpin turns as the list of suspects swells and narrows with the unearthing of each clue, but Lavender . . . is aiming at a broader target and posing deeper questions.”
—Bookpage

“First-time novelist Lavender has a knack for creepy characters and red herrings.”
—Library Journal

“First novelist Lavender has sprinkled his text with enough red herrings to feed the Biblical 5,000 but uses them to build page-turning suspense. . . . Lavender’s invocation of the notorious Milgram experiment conducted at Yale on obedience to authority adds an additional–and salutary–layer of psychological meaning to his elaborate plot.”
—Booklist

More Praise for Obedience:

“Obedience draws you in and never lets go — and what a ride!”
—David Baldacci

"In his dream-like and labyrinthine debut, Will Lavender delivers a clever, intricate page-turner that kept me guessing late into the night. Obedience is a house of mirrors where every corner we turn is a false reflection of the truth until the shocking final scene. A gripping exploration of human nature and all its foibles told in Lavender's fresh and original voice, Obedience is not to be missed."
—Lisa Unger

“Obedience is a very scary story set on the border where good meets evil, located in this case in that scariest of places, academia. Taut, twisty, and highly original: the pages turned themselves.”
—Peter Abrahams

"A taut and timely thriller that explores the dark side of academia, where classrooms are dangerous and paranoia abounds."
—Karin Slaughter

"A taut, clever puzzle, so artfully crafted and tightly wound that it springs open its trap when you least expect it to."
—Carol Goodman, author of The Sonnet Lover and The Ghost Orchid

"A devilishly inventive debut that reads like a house of mirrors. Nothing is what it seems, right up to the devastating finale."
—Brian Freeman, author of Stripped

About the Author
WILL LAVENDER is a writing and literature professor and holds an MFA in creative writing from Bard College. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife and children and is currently working on a second novel.

Customer Reviews

Did Not Live Up To Hype!
This book got mixed reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. I was lucky to find the audio version at the library and I am so happy I chose this version: the reader was terrific.

Loving books in a school setting, I was excited about this book: students in a Logic & Reasoning are asked to solve a hypothetical Kidnapping before a murder occurs. There are hints of a similar case nearby which ended in murder years ago. There are lots of twists and turns while the reader tries to figure out what is real and what is not. Be prepared for a climactic ending.

I found the book a little confusing (characters) perhaps because it was an audio, and I was left disappointed at the end. Still happy I listened to this audio.

Intriguing, but a let down....
Obedience
By Will Lavender

Obedience sets us up on the first day of logic class for some students. The professor doesn't bring and syllabus, but instead gives them an assignment to find a missing girl named Polly. He sends out emails each week with new clues and details. The class must find her before the end of the six week term or she will be murdered!

The students are both intrigued and puzzled by what they are suppose to be doing. As they gather more information, they begin to question whether this girl might really be missing. Is the class assignment really teaching them logic and reasoning or are they trying to solve something more sinister? The story starts to take over the lives of some of the students as they find new clues that seem to mix the assignment with reality.

Will Lavender's debut book mixes academia and mystery to a heightened level of paranoia. The puzzles and twists and turns of the book flood your mind as you try and figure out what is real and what isn't. At times, it almost becomes overwhelming keeping everyone straight. I really wanted to love this book, but even at the climatic ending, I still felt a bit lost. The story line intrigued me, but there never was an `aha' moment for me, which I really wanted to have!

Take a chance, read the book yourself and see what you think.

Reviewed for Allisons Attic Blog

Not horrible - not great...
I agree with most of the reviewers who are saying that the premise sounded very promising. I had actually checked out some reviews before reading the book and was on the fence whether to give it a go or not. It's not a horrible book but disappointing because it could have been potentially great. Some of the dialogue is sophomoric at best. The main students solving the "mystery" of Polly began to grate on my nerves. Certain plot twists were way too far fetched even for a work of fiction.
All in all it was entertaining enough for me to read the whole thing.