It isn't easy to come up
with a mystery that keeps readers compulsively turning pages, so give
first-time novelist Will Lavender credit for anchoring his book Obedience to a gripping premise. At
a small Southern college, three students with troubled pasts sign up for a
"Logic & Reasoning" class, taught by a professor no one seems to know much
about. On the first days, Professor Williams proposes a hypothetical: There's
this girl named Polly, who's disappeared from her home, and if the students
can't figure out what happened to her, she's going to die by the end of the
term. Mary Butler, a fastidious overachiever, takes it upon herself to do extra
research into the case, and discovers that it mirrors the real-life abduction
of another girl, who has ties to Professor Williams. Mary researches the
professor as well, and discovers he was involved in a plagiarism scandal a
decade ago, and has been a recluse ever since. Then, in the midst of her
investigation, Mary is invited to a class party at Williams' home, and on her
way out the door, the hostess hands her a note that reads: "None of this is
real. I AM NOT HIS WIFE."