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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When popular sixth former Ryan Connelly, goes missing teacher Geri Simpson suspects that some of her pupils know more than they are letting on. Sian, Ryan's girlfriend, is sure that he is in danger and is proved right when his badly burnt body is found. The police decide that Ryan's death was an accident, a drugs experiment that got out of hand but Geri knows that is completely out of character. Ryan's best friend Frank is obviously frightened and Geri tries to find out more but her Head teacher instructs her to leave the matter alone. Then Geri gets a message at home warning her to stop meddling.
Dying Embers is a great read, plenty of menace which keeps you turning the pages. The author successfully directs our suspicions to various characters. The pressures on young people are well drawn and there's a sympathy for them which makes the story even more gripping. Geri's home life and her awful relationship with her boyfriend is well written too.
Dying Embers is a great read, plenty of menace which keeps you turning the pages. The author successfully directs our suspicions to various characters. The pressures on young people are well drawn and there's a sympathy for them which makes the story even more gripping. Geri's home life and her awful relationship with her boyfriend is well written too.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
...For Geri Simpson, a teacher at St Michael's school, this Monday morning seems no different from any other. That Dean Connolly has not done his homework and is sent home ill after mid-morning break, doesn't strike Geri as unusual until she sees that Ryan, Dean's elder brother is absent from her class. Ryan is never absent and never bunked off lessons.
When Ryan's burned corpse is discovered, Geri can not reconcile the verdict of death whilst experimenting with drugs, with the Ryan she taught and had come to know.
Although, the reader never meets Ryan Connolly alive, I felt profound regret at his death, as Margaret brings him alive through the reflections of other characters. As to the manner of his death, that frightened me, but then she has done that in earlier books, so I shouldn't be surprised, but then she still surprises me.
As Geri seeks to come to terms with both the death and the manner of the death of Ryan, she is beset on all sides by other problems. As a teacher she is assertive and together, except it seems where boyfriend Nick is concerned. She conveys to the readers her inability to stop the downward spiral of her relationship. On a different level, she is aware that as she probes looking for answers, rumours and gossip could finish her teaching career. Only recently I reviewed, The Man At the Window by Betty Rowland, which also explored the difficulties experienced by teachers, and the damage done by unsubstantiated rumours.
Aside from this perplexing mystery, this book is rich in characters, we meet Agnes Hepple, a psychic leading a double life. Homeless, Adele living on the street. The descriptions of Adele making her place, from corrugated card, are heart rendering. And Geri's house mate Lauren gives an insight into the work of the Samaritans. The cross threads of Geri, Lauren, Adela and Agnes, all so different and yet each with their own set of fears and hopes was inspiring. They are all so well fleshed out, I would enjoy a book where each was the main character, so well defined is each character.
The many facets of this book are woven skilfully together to portray a vivid picture of school life today, homelessness, relationships and murder!
Without doubt this is Margaret Murphy's best book to date. Highly recommended. ---- Lizzie Hayes 25 October 2000
Format:Hardcover
Teacher Geri Simpson find school life more comfortable than home, where she and boyfriend Nick are stuck in a deteriorating relationship. When one of Geri's students, popular sixth former Ryan Connelly, goes missing she can sense the tension and unease among the pupils and suspects that some of them know more than they are letting on. Sian, Ryan's girlfriend, is convinced that he is in danger and is proved right when his badly burnt body is found. The police think Ryan's death was an accident caused by a drugs experiment but Geri won't accept that, it's completely out of character. She believes there must be another explanation and talks to family and friends about it. Meanwhile Ryan's best friend Frank is acting scared, Geri's Head teacher instructs her to leave the family alone and someone delivers a frightening message to her home warning her to stop meddling. Dying Embers is an accomplished psychological thriller which explores questions of grief, guilt, responsibility and atonement. The sense of menace is sustained well, the plot neatly constructed and Murphy successfully directs our suspicions to several different characters. As a teacher herself Murphy effortlessly re-creates the atmosphere of a modern high school. There is a genuine warmth and sympathy in her portrayal of young people and a realistic look at the pressures they face.
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