by Andrew Neiderman
1985, Zebra
A sinister tutor comes to a small town and works with some of the local children. Their grades improve, but they are also groomed into a team of sociopaths. They frame a teacher for pedophilia and hammer a student to death for bad-mouthing their tutor. The end.
Low stakes stuff here. You've got horror, then terror, then thriller, then suspense, and four more levels down you've got Teacher's Pet. It might have not been so bad without the horror novel packaging, but then I wouldn't have read it in the first place.
I expected the tutor to be some full blown Svengali or Charles Manson or Lucifer, and instead he's Mystery from the Pick Up Artist. His machinations get him a quickie with a bored housewife and that's about it.
Neiderman is capable of suspense, but there's none here. After the one act of violence I expected some tension with the kids worrying about getting caught, turning on each other, etc., but no. The tutor turns them in himself and moves to the next town.
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