Two Times Murder: A Quiet Teacher Mystery

Oyebanji (A Quiet Teacher) serves up a fun if far-fetched second thriller featuring spy–turned–math teacher Greg Abimbola. After helping solve a murder at the elite Pittsburgh school where he works, Greg wants to lay low and avoid detection by the Russian intelligence agency from which he’s defected. When a man is found dead in the Allegheny River, however, Pittsburgh PD Sgt. Rachel Lev begs for Greg’s help solving the crime, and he acquiesces—in part because he knows more about the killing than he’s letting on. Then a board member at Greg’s school falls from his apartment balcony to his death, and the former secret agent starts to worry Russian spies are hot on his trail. Greg remains a unique and appealing protagonist—a Black Russian with a keen eye for detail and conflicted feelings about his homosexuality—and Oyebanji utilizes him well, especially when Greg explains his deductions like a 21st-century Miss Marple. The plot’s locked-room mystery and espionage thriller elements make uneasy bedfellows, however, and Oyebanji fails to make Greg’s superspy background believable. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Brady McReynolds, Jabberwocky Literary. (Nov.)