Lack of Balance in Lavender's Obedience

Individuals who decide to mark a post-secondary education as the next step in their educational career are host to many emotions. Said individuals are anxious, sad, nostalgic, excited and anticipate the very best that college life has to offer. These youth, the future generation, are eager to make their stamp on the world; zealous pupils ready to absorb whatever knowledge and experience they are given.
In Will Lavender’s Obedience, Professor Williams’ Reasoning and Logic 204 class is in for a roller coaster of a semester. They are given the hypothetical situation of Polly. She is missing and if she is not found within six weeks or the end of the semester, she will be murdered. If half of my classes in college were this interesting, I’d be on the Dean’s List. The main female protagonist, Mary Butler is immediately intrigued, more by Williams’ persona than the actual case itself. As the class gets underway, Mary and the rest of her class dive headfirst into solving the case and “rescuing” Polly.
The readers gasp as Mary opens an email with a picture of her roommate sent from her professor. We experience a tingling sensation down our spine when Mary encounters Troy Harding for the first time in the professor’s office. We question Williams’ motives in getting his class this involved in something that has become quite unnecessarily convoluted. Lavender enables his audience to sit on the edge of their seats. We become nervous yet want to turn the page for more because we, like Williams’ Reasoning and Logic 204 class have become pawns in Lavender’s thought-provoking narrative.
Through interesting twists and turns, clues and behavioral patterns that have you questioning the value of ethics, Lavender keeps you guessing the entire novel, only, unfortunately to let you down considerably with a mediocre conclusion. After experiencing the nerve wracking trip into Bell City and Cale and hoping for a “happy ending,” the reader is left unsatisfied with the ending; yearning for more and knowing that his/her reaction of “that’s it?” was slightly inevitable. All in all, Lavender knows how to draw his readers in while keeping their attention focused on all the subtle clues, yet when it comes to delivering the anticipated ending to a 287 page mystery, he exhibits characteristics that are similar to the ending itself; weak and void of suspense and intrigue.