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Amanda Pepper #9
Adam and Evil
Available for the first time in ebook format, this special edition includes a new introduction from author Gillian Roberts and an exclusive interview with Amanda Pepper herself!
When a high school senior shows signs of mental illness, Amanda attempts to get him help, but she's rebuffed by his parents. When the same boy then becomes the prime suspect in a murder at the Philadelphia Main Library, and runs away, Amanda, who knows he's confused and in need of help—whether or not he committed the crime—has no choice but to run after him. And to run into the possibility of becoming the next victim herself.
When a high school senior shows signs of mental illness, Amanda attempts to get him help, but she's rebuffed by his parents. When the same boy then becomes the prime suspect in a murder at the Philadelphia Main Library, and runs away, Amanda, who knows he's confused and in need of help—whether or not he committed the crime—has no choice but to run after him. And to run into the possibility of becoming the next victim herself.
125 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 10, 2014
Amanda Pepper teaches english at Philly Prep and lives with CK Mackenzie Philly cop. In this episode, she takes her senior english students to the Philadelphia library. This is to help them on their final project. As they tour the library, Amanda meets several people as well as a corpse. To her dismay, one of her students is missing and presumed a suspect. Her sister shows up,her mother changes her tune about marriage and her best friend Sasha has decided to move to London. For Amanda to deal with all of this - she goes into overload. Too much to think about. She continues to try and help her student to the dismay of friends and family and her boss. But Amanda is relentless. She survives the events. For me, I love these books as Ms Roberts talks about places I have been. Makes me homesick. Thank you Gillian Roberts for giving me the chance to be back home.
July 18, 2014
I hadn't read an Amanda Pepper mystery in many years, and, sadly, I was disappointed with Adam and Evil. The mystery seemed to take a back seat to Amanda's angst about her personal life. In fact the title character, Adam Evans, hardly appears in the book at all. The Philadelphia setting, with the exception of the Free Library, is reduced to a few streets names, one hot pretzel and a bag full of cheesesteaks. All too bad, because the series starter, Caught Dead in Philadelphia, is a gem of book.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2017
The best part about this novel is the last 25% of the book and finding out who the killer is. The killer was a surprise and that's the way it should be. The front 75% of the book though, other than laying out the crime, dragged on and on, and had too much filler. And this book isn't big to begin with. Would have been better as a novella, with the fluff removed. Amanda Pepper is the recurring character, who is an English school teacher at an elite Philadelphia high school. A librarian is killed while her class tours the city library. Her student Adam is accused of the crime, for no other reason that he can't be found later. And he is a little odd. So investigation is not really prsent in this book, just mostly Amanda worrying about her boyfriend and her teaching prospects. But like I said the last 25% of the book is pretty good and finally gets into it. Only 250 pages in the book club size hard cover, so not too much of an investment of your time.
October 28, 2020
Adam and Evil was a pretty good entry in a pretty good series although after 8 earlier stories, some of the characters are getting a bit tired. This particular entry centers around the trials and tribulations of a troubled teen suspected of murder and of his teacher who tried to help him. Some of the scenes felt contrived and the obstinate cop was a bit too obstinate but it was an enjoyable read.
March 1, 2020
Great new series for me following English teacher cum sleuth Amanda Pepper. The chase scene towards the end would have had me on the edge of my seat if I weren't on my constitutional. There might have been a few out loud gasps during that time!
June 3, 2024
This series is always enjoyable, and the ending is always well thought out. Roberts does a great job of letting the reader tag along with Amanda Pepper as she finds clues and figures out events and leads us to the guilty person.
July 4, 2016
What do you do when you teach at one of Philadelphia’s hard-case schools, the administration doesn’t exactly appreciate you, and you have a student who is clearly off his rails? That’s the backdrop for this book, the ninth in the Amanda Pepper series. It won’t be a disappointment.
Amanda loves her students while simultaneously finding many of them frustrating for their hormonal quirks and teenage apathy. She continues to teach because there are those rare gem moments when she actually gets through to someone, and they catch a spark based on something she taught.
Adam Evans is no such student. Something is truly wrong with him. He exhibits all of the signs of a kid who is about to completely unravel. He hasn’t showered in days; he is in class but entirely absent, laughing inappropriately at inappropriate times and engaging in disruptive off-putting behavior.
So concerned for him is Amanda that she organizes a parent conference—a big mistake, since the parents don’t appreciate her observations. She is to blame, not the boy, and they make sure to file a rather nasty complaint with the cowardly principal as a result of the meeting.
Things continue to degenerate for Adam at school until one day, Pepper and her class visit the city’s storied public library. They tour the place in preparation for a final project. Among their tour guides is a nervous irritable woman who is ultimately strangled while the students are at lunch inside the library. Worse still, Adam has gone missing, and the cops, including Amanda’s sometimes seemingly unconcerned boyfriend, is convinced he strangled the woman. Not so fast, insists Amanda, and she sets out to prove the young man innocent and get him help.
All of this happens at a time when Amanda herself is at a crossroads. She’s not sure she wants the relationship with boyfriend cop C. J. McKenzie to continue, so absent is he all too often even when he’s in the house. She’s burning out on teaching, or so she thinks, and her mother has some kind of bizarre epiphany that enables her to encourage Amanda to walk away from everything and go back to grad school. Worse still, her lovable unconventional best friend, Sasha, is moving to London.
It is against this backdrop of transition and change that Amanda must solve a library killing before the cops arrest her student suspect and stop looking for the real killer. In the process of finding a killer, Amanda nearly loses her life, and even her traditional conventional sister, Beth, is endangered.
Amanda loves her students while simultaneously finding many of them frustrating for their hormonal quirks and teenage apathy. She continues to teach because there are those rare gem moments when she actually gets through to someone, and they catch a spark based on something she taught.
Adam Evans is no such student. Something is truly wrong with him. He exhibits all of the signs of a kid who is about to completely unravel. He hasn’t showered in days; he is in class but entirely absent, laughing inappropriately at inappropriate times and engaging in disruptive off-putting behavior.
So concerned for him is Amanda that she organizes a parent conference—a big mistake, since the parents don’t appreciate her observations. She is to blame, not the boy, and they make sure to file a rather nasty complaint with the cowardly principal as a result of the meeting.
Things continue to degenerate for Adam at school until one day, Pepper and her class visit the city’s storied public library. They tour the place in preparation for a final project. Among their tour guides is a nervous irritable woman who is ultimately strangled while the students are at lunch inside the library. Worse still, Adam has gone missing, and the cops, including Amanda’s sometimes seemingly unconcerned boyfriend, is convinced he strangled the woman. Not so fast, insists Amanda, and she sets out to prove the young man innocent and get him help.
All of this happens at a time when Amanda herself is at a crossroads. She’s not sure she wants the relationship with boyfriend cop C. J. McKenzie to continue, so absent is he all too often even when he’s in the house. She’s burning out on teaching, or so she thinks, and her mother has some kind of bizarre epiphany that enables her to encourage Amanda to walk away from everything and go back to grad school. Worse still, her lovable unconventional best friend, Sasha, is moving to London.
It is against this backdrop of transition and change that Amanda must solve a library killing before the cops arrest her student suspect and stop looking for the real killer. In the process of finding a killer, Amanda nearly loses her life, and even her traditional conventional sister, Beth, is endangered.
December 1, 2017
Amanda Pepper is a teacher we can all admire and relate to. She is devoted to her students and when she feels that one of the boys in her class, Adam, is dangerously close to a mental breakdown, she calls in his parents. They do not want to admit that Adam could have a problem and end up getting Amanda in all sorts of trouble with her boot-licking principal. When someone is murdered in the State Library, Adam is the prime suspect. He is on the run and getting less and less in touch with reality. Amanda tries to convince someone that the boy is not only innocent, but in real trouble, but things only become worse.
I really liked this book and the protagonist. I thought she behaved in a logical manner and solved the crime in a way that a real "amateur detective" would. The police don't know the boy and the people who should know him best are too busy with their own selves to look at what is going on with their son. I'll be reading more of this series
I really liked this book and the protagonist. I thought she behaved in a logical manner and solved the crime in a way that a real "amateur detective" would. The police don't know the boy and the people who should know him best are too busy with their own selves to look at what is going on with their son. I'll be reading more of this series
November 9, 2016
This book was okay. It is the first book I read in the series. Maybe I would have connected to the main character better if I had read the other books in the series, but I don't feel I missed plot elements because of it. My biggest problem with this book is I was more interested in what happened to Adam, the person in the title and the primary suspect in the murder. (No real spoiler here - this happens in the first few chapters). But we really didn't learn much about him. And then it was very anti-climatic in the end for me. While it was an okay read, it will quickly pass from my memory, not to be recommended or searched out for another tale.
June 13, 2013
I liked this story. In addition to the interesting mystery surrounding the murder, I enjoyed the fact that the author addressed issues with couples who have been together for a while. Not many do this, so it was a unique take. I gave it a 3, not because it is a bad mystery but because there just isn't enough there to attract me to read it again. I may change my mind as I read this book out of series order.
January 9, 2012
English Prof Amanda Pepper is having an identity crisis resulting in problems with career, family, love life. She's a spunky, outspoken person who really cares about her students, especially one who seems to be going off the deep end and is associated with the murder of one of her sister's friends at a local library. As the story evolves, she finds herself and also the murderer.
February 6, 2016
This wasn't a great book. It was nearly impossible to care about any of the characters. The mystery itself wasn't even all that interesting, and the few bits that did seem interesting were never pursued. It's a series, so perhaps I just picked the wrong one to start with. But I did love spending a little time again in the Free Library.
June 30, 2016
I liked this one the best of the series so far. I really love the interdisciplinary project the students are working on in this one, and I like the heartfelt concern Amanda has for her students. I'm still not entirely a huge fan of the pacing and writing style, but I like the characters and the plot.
October 29, 2007
An Amanda Pepper mystery. Amanda fears taht one of her students, Adam, has psychological problems. Th eheadmaster & parents feel she is interfering. On an outing to the library, an asst. is killed & Adam disappears. This makes Adams suspicious and put in the category of possible killer.
April 21, 2009
Part of a series featuring Amanda Pepper, who is a school teacher who lives with a detective and has a penchant for involving herself in murder and teeing him off. For some reason, Amanda drove me crazy. Her angst over whether she wanted to continue teaching was overblown and got on my nerves.
February 25, 2009
this series makes me LOL. I enjoy the characters and the puzzles are fun too. I listened to this one - a great companion for walking, sunbathing and needlepoint
August 28, 2009
Amanda Pepper #9
July 11, 2013
More Amanda angst than is healthy for a book, but these are great books to read on the train (and I do!)
September 24, 2013
it has a little humor, a little murder, love, broken hearts... it's an easy read.
October 12, 2015
I really enjoyed listening to this book. Both the story and the narrator are wonderful. I look forward to listening to more by this author
May 10, 2016
Amanda Pepper
This is the best Amanda Pepper story I have read so far. While it may not be entirely believable, it is interesting and a bit exciting.
This is the best Amanda Pepper story I have read so far. While it may not be entirely believable, it is interesting and a bit exciting.
June 4, 2016
Great series but this was not my favorite, a little slow
October 18, 2016
I love the Amanda Pepper series!
August 3, 2023
Another entertaining tale from Ms. Roberts.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
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