Not long ago, I read Dave Cullen’s  fabulous Parkland and it reinforced not only my horror about school shootings but my complete lack of understanding about the shooters. And although on one level I know they are not all the same, in my brain they all seem to coalesce into a group of people wo are all mentally ill in one way or another. 

So I wasn’t sure how well I might enjoy a fictional exploration of a school shooting. In the past, I had read and enjoyed both Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes and Laurie King’s Lockdown, but those were familiar authors whose books I had liked in general, and I couldn’t recall reading any of James Grippando’s books. And reading about this title,  Jack Swyteck wasn’t a guy I felt like I knew (despite this being #17 in Grippando’s Jack Swyteck series). Thanks to Harper and NetGalley, I received a copy of Grippando’s Twenty in return for this honest review, so I jumped in when I read the synopsis. 

Jack Swyteck, the protagonist, lives in Florida with his FBI Agent wife Andie Henning and their daughter Righley, who is a student in the kindergarten class at the posh Riverside Day School. Andie has just walked Righley to her classroom and moved on to the rec room on campus when she hears fire alarms followed by loud “popping” noises and screams. Andie knows she is SUPPOSED to stay locked down inside the rec center, but her concern for Righley takes over, and she can’t overcome her desire to get them both to safety. The story of the actual shooting is brief, and the question as to who did the shooting and why takes the focus of the book. 

A handgun is found on campus and when the news goes viral that it is registered to a Muslim man named Amir Khoury, things sort of unwind in various ways. First, Al Qaeda takes credit for the shooting, then Andie is blamed for not taking action to stop the shooter (FBI agent, yes but by law prohibited from carrying her gun on campus), then all kinds of anti-Muslim fervor breaks out. A senior class member named Xavier Khoury confesses to the shooting, and his mother Lilly is Andie’s friend (one of the few parents at the ritzy school who had welcomed Andie). With her son facing charges of multiple murders, Lilly turns to Andie’s husband Jack Swyteck for help — and he just happens to be a criminal defense attorney. 

Although it might seem a bit too convenient that all these pieces fit so neatly, it really works. Issues of bigotry (both race and class), friendship, marital relationships, and political implications are explored as Jack digs into the Khoury family’s secrets.  

Well done. Four stars. And I will definitely look at more of Mr. Grippando’s books, starting with one or more in the Jack Swyteck series.