Free Download Books In Pdf: Drowning with Others Pdf

ISBN: B07GDDGSM2
Title: Drowning with Others Pdf

They have the perfect marriage. Did one of them kill to get it?

Prep school sweethearts Ian and Andi Copeland are envied by everyone they know. They have successful businesses, a beautiful house in St. Louis, and their eldest daughter, Cassidy, is following in their footsteps by attending prestigious Glenlake Academy. Then, a submerged car is dredged from the bottom of a swimming hole near the campus. So are the remains of a former writer-in-residence who vanished twenty years ago—during Ian and Andi’s senior year.

When Cassidy’s journalism class begins investigating the death, Ian and Andi’s high school secrets rise to the surface. Each has a troubled link to the man whose arrival and sudden disappearance once set the school on edge. And each had a reason to want him gone. As Cassidy unwittingly edges closer to the truth, unspoken words, locked away for decades, will force Ian and Andi to question what they really know—about themselves, about the past, and about a marriage built on a murderous lie.

Ouch With the Review, But Truthful This just was not a story I could get into at all. I had read 33% of the book, figured out pretty much what happened, was bored senseless and I really just hate this book. There was some good prose and one or two of the characters had some merit, but it just was not put together in a manner that inspires someone to just read. I really did try. I just couldn't do itAt Glenlake Academy, murder is NOT in the curriculum. Glenlake Academy is a prestigious, expensive prep school tastefully located in a rural area north of Chicago. For generations it has protected and prepared the sons and daughters of wealthy families, giving them academic backgrounds that ensure admission to the Ivy League colleges their parents expect them to attend. The grounds are lovely, the buildings classical in design, and the faculty carefully chosen. The wildcard is always the visiting instructor of writing - a writer, poet, or journalist who comes for one year to lead the writing program for which Glenlake is famous. And in the 1996-97 school year, the wild card is considerably wilder than the school counted on.Dallas Walker prides himself on being a "bad-boy poet" - swaggering and pushing the envelop at every opportunity. He insists that the students call him by his first name, takes kids to local bars to play pool, and supplies them with beer. As Ian Copeland mutters to himself, "Sometimes I can't believe they let this guy teach prep school." He's not the only person who wonders why this feral cat was released in the aviary.The Copeland family has attended and supported Glenlake for generations and Ian is embarrassed that one of the buildings is named for his great-grandfather. The Copelands are an old-money mid-western family, although the money isn't flowing as freely as it used to. Ian's parents are stereotypical country club set - quietly sure of themselves and their place in society. Andi Bloom's family is stereotypical noveau riche, her father a loud, boisterous entertainment exec who's made a fortune and likes to talk about it. Chalk and cheese, as the Brits say.Ian attends Glenlake because of family tradition. Andi has been banished to Glenlake because her mother's dead and her new step-mother wants her out of the house. The teens click and by their senior year are inseparable. Ian's parents are polite, but not eager to welcome Andi into the family. A Jewish daughter-in-law isn't in their plans, but they're willing to hope that college will separate them. The separation comes sooner than anyone expects and the young couple aren't separated by distance, but by Andi's infatuation for an unscrupulous older man who likes firm, young flesh. Then Dallas Walker disappears.This book is almost a saga, tracing two families for twenty-two years. Andi and Ian reunite after Dallas Walker's disappearance, go to college, and marry soon after graduation. Now they've been happily married for over two decades and their oldest child Cassidy is a senior at Glenlake. The tradition lives on, but Cassidy's parents are disturbed by the new writing instructor - a charismatic journalist. Like mother/like daughter?There are several threads running through the story and one of them is the wisdom or foolishness of sending teens away to boarding school. Are we aping the English with their famous "public schools" like Harrow or Eton? Are parents passing the buck by having strangers care for their teens? Or are we simply following the tradition of many societies that separate adolescents from their parents in order to let them mature without overly protective or over-indulgent parents?There's no argument that most of the students at Glenlake (both in 1996 and in 2019) are "good kids." They're mannerly, appreciative of their privileges, and hard workers. They know their parents expect them to succeed and few seem rebellious. The rare lazy, entitled kid sticks out and is despised by his classmates. They drink booze when they can get it, smoke pot, and pair off, but they're discrete when they break rules. Glenlake is swift to punish bad behavior and no one wants to be expelled from Paradise.Which is why the shocking discovery of Dallas Walker's body rocks the smooth surface of life at Glenlake. Was his death an accident, suicide, or something else? Wayne Kelly wants his students (including Cassidy) to investigate the death as though they were reporters. There's a ready-made suspect in the form of an ex-con who palled around with Dallas. But Walker had dirtier secrets than a liking for rough playmates. Did one of those secrets get him killed? Or was it as simple as a driven student terrified that a C on his report card would keep him out of Harvard?I read this book in one gulp. I'm giving it four stars because Amazon won't let me give 4 1/2 stars. I admire the authors' bravery. It's hard to pull off a book that moves between two time periods and includes several points of view. It could have been a confusing book, but it flows relatively easily and any reader paying attention can follow its twisted pathways without getting lost or bored. That's an accomplishment in itself.My only criticism is its length. Most of the narrative adds to the story, but I think the parts about Ian Copeland's business problems could have been left out to good effect. I assume the authors feel that his experiences with a crooked supplier relates to the tragedy at Glenlake Academy, but I don't see it. And lopping 20 minutes or so off the reading time would be a blessing.I think the strongest point is the characters. Andi and Ian are wonderfully likable people. Not perfect, but their love and loyalty after more than a quarter century as a couple is touching. The two families they came from are completely different, but all the characters are realistic. Not all of them are likable, but they're people you've met.The authors have tackled some tough issues. We all worry about the vulnerable young and how to protect them. And how much we SHOULD protect them. Our children don't stay children forever. Going away to school is supposed to expose kids to a wider variety of people, but the cost of Glenlake means most of the kids come from wealthy, white families. There is tension because the faculty don't fit in with this privileged group. Glenlake parents may respect teachers, but they aren't likely to consider them social equals. Is Dallas simply a working class man who rejects the "snobbery" of Glenlake? Or is he a self-destructive bastard who longs to pull others into his downward spiral?How far should we go to preserve institutions we believe in? One character refers delicately to using an "extrajudicial solution." That's putting it mildly! Would you break the law to protect something you love? Would you participate in a cover-up if you believed the end justified the means? There are no set-in-stone answers, but this book makes you think.Sometimes the dialogue is stilted, but conversations between teens and adults frequently are. Not to mention the awkward conversations between old school mates who haven't met in 20 years. I disagree with some of the sweeping judgments made. Dallas was NOT a sociopath or he would have been more anxious to impress the academy administration than to thumb his nose at them. And illicit student-teacher affairs are no more a problem in boarding schools than other high schools. Anyone who reads a newspaper knows that.But overall it's a thoughtful, very readable book that involves subjects of interest to most of us. I'm glad I picked it as my Kindle First selection.A TEACHER BRINGS BACK THE PAST This got four stars because the f word is overdone and adds nothing to the story. Secrets of parents come out when a teacher decides to investigate a murder with his senior high school students that happened 20 years ago. Andi puts her wants before others then and now.