Review: Lucy has some 'splaining' to do...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2012
E.Z. Hercules has written an amusing play on words for the title of this mystery: Lucy Stands on Her Principal. As a second grade teacher Lucy is happy in her job, falling in love with her principal, David, and spending many hours beyond her own classroom work helping David to complete work toward a higher degree.But change is in the air: an opening occurs unexpectedly in the district middle school, where Lucy encounters students she describes as "Big, scary adolescents with bad breath and even worse attitudes ... and big ungainly bodies they are just learning how to use." She misses her second graders: "...cute and cuddly, with big, earnest eyes that look up at you with respect and trust... unlike the seventh graders who "...do not look up at you - they get right in your face." Needless to say, she is having a difficult adjustment, and working with a principal she knew years before and with whom she had a difficult history. To complicate things further, her brightest student in seventh grade is the same girl whose difficulties in second grade were the root of the dispute between that principal and Lucy.When the ornery principal, hated by most students and faculty members, is murdered just before a staff meeting, Lucy is a suspect as she has written an undelivered email resignation. Before the case can be solved, another principal must be transferred to replace the deceased, and David is chosen for the job. Lucy, still in love and waiting for him to propose, is in for a surprise. She has to hire a lawyer, and looks up a far-removed cousin who has just finished law school. She also is befriended by a special education teacher who decides to work with Lucy to find the true murderer.The story has many suspects to consider, and leaves the reader wondering until the final pages. I enjoyed this school based murder, although Lucy's fearful views of middle-schoolers took longer than I might have expected to come around to appreciating her seventh graders for the wonderful beings I have recognized for years now.  Still, I give this one five stars for the elements of a mystery and for excellent characterization.