Deadly Games

About the Book

    The body of Elizabth Hanlon, controversial Dean of Girls at Kennedy High School, is discovered in the boiler room of the girls' gymnasium. Her murder casts a pall over the waning days of the school semester. The eight teachers in the girls' Physical Educ-ation department are the primary suspects. Each has had a serious run-in with Dean Hanlon due to a severe clash with her philoso-phical approach to education, and each admits to disliking the woman, her attitude and her disciplinary methods.

Teri Hunter, popular tennis instructor, has been extremely outspoken in condemning the dean's antiquated methods in dealing with the problems of high school students of the nineties. Her passionate concern for the rights of students frequently places her in a contentious position with the school'd administrators. When the murder weapon, a tennis racket, is found in her locker, she becomes the prime suspect.  

Marty Arnold, young dance teacher who discovered the body, is another suspect. She's been on the dean's shit list for opening the dance studio for special practices on week-ends and for refusing to search students' lockers for contraband. Marty was heard having a violent argument with Dean Hanlon the day prior to the murder.

Teacher Pat Masterson was conducting a class in the swimming pool right next to the boiler room where the crime took place. The swim teacher is high on the list of suspects as the dean was high- ly critical of Pat's living arrangement with her fiance, and Pat had had numerous arguments with her.

Adie Ames, gymnastics coach and rumored lesbian, and Erin Dempsey, her black partner, were constantly harassed by the dean who left religious tracts in Adie's school mailbox and nasty messages on the couple's phone machine. The police discover that the two were involved in a furious fight in a Santa Rosa gay women's bar and are capable of violent actions.

Teacher Susan Patrick claims not to have been on campus at the time of the murder. She will have to prove this to the satisfaction of the investigating officers, for they have learned that she was in the dean's doghouse due to her lack of cooperation with many of the dean's pet projects, and she's incensed the old timers on the staff for discovering and exposing the existence of a department slush fund supported by illegally charging students for services.

    Barb Clark, the other dance teacher, who coordinates student productions between the music, drama and dance departments, is another suspect. The dean accused her of questionable and inap-propriate behavior for conducting private, extracurricular sessions with the handsome male student lead in the school's current prod-uction of 'Carousel'.

Thelma Hendricks, middle-aged and overweight member of the department, is another faculty member with a grievance towards the dean. She was unfairly accused of embezzling Athletic Club funds. In addition, the dean continually criticized her for the actions ofher daughter, Candy, a school drop-out, who has run off with a local drug pusher.

Sharon Garrett, the Chairman of the Department and the dean's best buddy, appears to be the one teacher above suspicion. They had similar philosophical approaches to the problems at Kennedy High School. During the course of their investigation, however, police officers Jim Collins and Harry Leonard uncover a torrid love affair going on between Sharon and a young male English teacher--certain to have been disapproved by the narrow minded dean.

Other possible suspects include a maintenance worker fired for exposing himself to girls on the tennis courts; an irate father whose daughter was injured in a gymnastic accident; a male stu- dent arrested on campus for selling pornographic photos of his girl friend; the leader of a gang whose girl friend was benched by the dean and not permitted to play in a championship basketball game; the local school drug supplier; an outstan

About the Author

Born and raised in California, Eleanor Clarke Yukic spent all of her youthful leisuretime on the beach at Santa Monica or in the San Bernardino Mountains. She developed an early interest in the out-of-doors and the environment as she counseled at various camps for nine summers and directed for fourteen. Yukic has hiked California wilderness trails in Desolation valley, Yosemite, Mt. Whitney and over Kearsage Pass; the Long Trail in Vermont; the Milford and Abel Tasmin tracks in New Zealand; Lake County in great Britain; and in the Pyrenees of France. Yukic worked as a teacher and with the Girl Scout and Camp Fire organizations for 38 years and has a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been an active member of the American Red Cross, the American Camping Association and the Berkeley Teacher's Association. Since retiring she works fulltime writing mstery novels, a life long ambition. She has three adult children and one grandchild. She lives in Albany with her faithful German Shepherd and stays in shape by lap swimming and daily hikes along the nearby San Francisco Bay Trail enjoying the sights and smells of nature while fantasizing the scene for her latest manuscript. Her prior published mysteries are THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL and MURDER IN THE MIST.