What's it's about:
Career Day at Guadalupe Middle School: a day given to innocent hopes and youthful dreams. A day no one in attendance will ever forget.

New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King is an award-winning master of combining rich atmospheric detail with riveting, keen-edged mystery. Now, in her newest standalone novel of psychological suspense, King turns her sharp eye to a moment torn from the headlines and a school under threat.
A year ago, Principal Linda McDonald arrived at Guadalupe determined to overturn the school's reputation for truancy, gang violence, and neglect. One of her initiatives is Career Day--bringing together children, teachers, and community presenters in a celebration of the future. But there are some in attendance who reject McDonald's bright vision.

A principal with a secret. A husband with a murky past. A cop with too many questions. A kid under pressure to prove himself. A girl struggling to escape a mother's history. A young basketball player with an affection for guns.

Even the school janitor has a story he dare not reveal.

But no one at the gathering anticipates the shocking turn of events that will transform a day of possibilities into an expolsive confrontation.

My thoughts:
3.5 stars
It was a little confusing and left some unanswered questions . With that said I would like to think NetGalley for giving me the chance to read it in a change for my honest opinion

A troubled middle school in a poor urban neighborhood is experiencing a rebirth thanks to a decimated and gifted principal named Linda along with the subtle wisdom of Tío the janitor. Of course, there are others, teachers, parents, students who all contribute to the school coming together in spite of the odds and the odds are tough. A beloved little young girl named Bea has disappeared, nearly breaking her friends, particularly young Nick. Then there was the murder of one student’s babysitter by another student’s brother and the divided loyalties that created as one student is now testifying against the killer. But it’s Career Day, a special day exploring hopes and dreams as well as the challenges and realities of their futures.

The story progresses in several short, short chapters, a tick tock of their lives from midnight to just after noon. There are a few interstitial chapters that give background and context. There are some case notes from Nick’s school counselor. Students are preparing for the day, some with anger and some with fear. Some feel as though today is the day for drastic action. You know something is about to happen, the tension builds inexorably. We follow several students and staff and even a local police officer there to talk about her job for Career Day….and yet I was still surprised. It was always fair, but so surprising.

Laurie R. King has created some memorable series characters during her long, impressive writing career. There’s Mary Russell, Sherlock Holme’s fearless and peerless wife. Then there is Kate Martinelli, the San Francisco police detective. She mines the era between the wars with Stuyvesant & Grey. She’s recently moved away from series and Lockdown stands on its own. I will say, though, it was a pleasure to encounter a favorite character from the Kate Martinellis series who pops up to give a little bit of help to the cop.

I enjoyed Lockdown very much. The pace kept getting faster and faster and faster. It is an ambitious story and suggests another novel that must be written, the story of Bea. But then I want a sequel with Gordon and Linda, too. So I am greedy. And that brings up the one flaw in Lockdown. It is not one story, it is many stories. There is the school tragedy thriller, the mercenaries and revenge thriller, the haunted house and multiverse adventure, and surely Tío has more stories in him, too. There’s an incomplete quality. We rush headlong to the crisis, then the denouement is wrapped up in a few paragraphs…with a short coda. I think King fell in love with these characters and overloaded this book with too many who are too interesting. I know that’s an odd criticism, I know, but it made the book feel unfinished for me. Which means King needs to get busy and give us more of these endearing people.

Lockdown will be released June 13th. I received an e-galley in advance from the publisher through NetGalley.

This is certainly a riveting book full of suspense. The format of the minutes showing is gripping and keeps you reading. The cast of characters is also suspenseful as everyone has a secret or is trying to figure something out. Overall, I like the book. The subject of taking place at a school and school events is challenging but Laurie King pulls it off.

How can a little girl have so much influence over her classmates? One little girl who's love and friendliness brings a town together. She helps bring a town, a school, gangs and people who don't normally associate, together to help save them from what can be a horrific tragedy.
I loved reading this book. The characters have back stories that show how they all ended up in this town. How they are able to come work together and save a school.
Highly recommended!!
5 Stars

I had a hard time getting into this book. I'm not a big fan of the formatting style. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

I wish I could join in the praise for this book. Laurie King has an engaging writing style that I truly enjoyed reading. She has the ability to put me right in the moment with the characters, so I feel their emotions and the turmoil of the situation. Unfortunately, this story just didn't work for me stylistically.

Virtually every character in this book has a narrating part, and there are a lot of characters. We shift narrator every few pages. The switch is clear, as the chapter heading gives us the narrator's name, but for me these short vignettes lacked the coherent feel of a solid story. Most of the characters don't start intersecting paths until halfway through the book. Each section on its own is a compelling read, but there are too many things going on. It's a bit of sensory overload.

To further hinder the story's flow, we also have quite a few flashbacks. We go back thirty years, in several different chapters, to see how a particular couple met. While some of that information eventually plays into the present timeline, it detracted too much from the immediacy of the story. Then we also go back eleven months for another character's memories.

The interruptions in the present timeline, combined with the ever-revolving cast of characters feels too disjointed, making it difficult for me to focus and stay connected. I respect the author's approach here. Individually, each character fascinated me. But, as a whole, the story didn't move me as it otherwise could have.

Career Day at Guadalupe Middle School

This story started out kind of slow for me. It took me a while to untangle the characters and figure out their relationships to each other. The story is told from many points of view, which didn't help the bit of a chaotic start.

Another reason the book was hard to get into is a formatting style I'm seeing more and more. There was no line spacing between paragraphs and only a one space indent at the start of each new paragraph. This is a difficult style to read. The short chapters with changes in POV actually helped break up what otherwise looks like one solid block of narrative.

But I persevered because the story interested me enough to keep going and about 25% in everything started falling in place and I ended up really enjoying the tale.

I enjoyed many of the characters and the ending actually surprised me. It went a different direction than I thought it was going to.

I received this book from Random House through Net Galley in exchange for my unbiased review.

I got an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. I did not love this book as apparently every other person who reviewed it on GR did. There were many different points of view involved and for the most part, each chapter was from a different character's perspective. It was really confusing at first and it took me a LONG time to get into it. I thought there was way too much backstory about how Linda and Gordon met, and what Gordon's history held (although that part was pretty vague even though it figured prominently in the unfolding present day story). Also, the whole secondary story line about the disappearance of Bea Cuomo really muddled the rest of the story and seemed to have little to do with the current situation, except that she had joined some of the kids in friendship and strengthened their personalities at school, in her absence. I felt like I didn't get enough info on the characters in the present day especially Brandon who figured largely in the end of the story. I knew more about Olivia, Linda and Gordon and while it was interesting, it didn't really matter in the current situation that much. I was actually annoyed when the writer flashbacked to Tom Atcheson's history during the most exciting action scene in the book. I read it because it told me more about him, but at that point I just wanted to finish the book. I was completely unsatisfied with the ending except that the kids were all ok for the most part and had moved on with their lives. Not sure if I will read another by Ms. King, but she has so many positive reviews that I am guessing another book of her might be better for me to read. I am really surprised at home many people loved this book and gave it 5 stars. It barely got 3 from me. And I read A LOT, like a book a day. Kind of bummed because I thought this book would be really good!!

I live on the Central Coast of California, where it’s borderline heresy to be anything less than a huge fan of beloved local author Laurie King. True confession time: I admit it, I tried a couple of her books and they just didn’t grab me. But seeing that her latest book, Lockdown, was subtitled “A Novel of Suspense,” and that it was set in a middle school in a small rural town on the central coast (that sounded eerily like the one where my husband worked for many years) made me LEAP at the opportunity to read an advance copy! (Thanks to NetGalley and Random House – Ballantine.)

The setting is Guadalupe Middle School, where Principal Linda McDonald (who has been in charge for the past year) has been working tirelessly to change the culture from that of a gang-ridden, crime infested school to…something else. The story takes place on a single day, with flashback chapters interspersed to present the backstories for some of the characters (including Linda and her husband Gordon, who routinely helps out and supports his wife in her professional endeavor). Another main character is local cop Olivia, who intuits that Gordon has a mystery that might be revealed if she were to use her law enforcement resources to do some sleuthing.

As Linda gets to school, it is the morning of her long-awaited undertaking: Career Day, when she hopes to present students with ideas and options that might inspire them to escape their environment. “They gym would be packed to the rafters with seven hundred-plus adolescents, on the brink of boiling over, into impatience, mockery, even the violence that was never far away.” The students are “ages eleven to fourteen. Half child, half adult, all hormones and passion…” One of the invited speakers, Thomas Atcheson, who plans to speak about the tech industry, has a different perspective: “”Career Day.” What an exercise in futility! Urging ill-trained children to become entrepreneurs was like telling finger-painters to aim for the Sistine Chapel: those with drive required no encouragement.”

Other important characters include the Coach and several students: the basketball star, the cousin of the gang member on trial for murdering a beautiful young girl, and the victim’s sister. Then there is the janitor, an immigrant who has a secret and takes a huge interest in the community.

Told from alternating perspectives, the story of Guadalupe’s Career Day its effect on several people’s lives, is filled with tension, mystery and outstanding character development. I love the way Ms. King presented the school in a way that anyone who has worked with students in middle or high school will recognize: ”…even the oldest, most sneering of these adolescents harbored secret pockets of hope, a hidden belief that the world might still hold out an outstretched hand in place of a fist.”

Impossible to say more without spoiling, which I NEVER do! It’s well written, and a relatively quick read with memorable characters. Five stars.

When they say "a novel of suspense," they mean it! I've long been a devotee of the Mary Russell series but was never able to get into King's other books so I thought I'd try again with this latest offering. In the hands of a lesser writer, the multiple points of view and array of backstories would have quickly gone wrong, but King immediately draws the reader in with a solidly crafted web of characters and secrets. I did guess the main whodunit and was a bit disappointed that a few of the backstories and current situations were left with no further explanation while another was very neatly tied up, but overall this was a thrilling read and one of those books I couldn't wait to get back to whenever I had to set it aside.

Very well done book full of a wide cast of characters. I had a bit of a problem keeping them straight in my head, but they ended up gaining more of an identity as the book progressed. I was totally into the story and would recommend this book for fans of suspense/thrillers. Thumbs up!

I was very excited to read a Laurie book of any kind but was especially excited to read a standalone. I love her Holmes and Russell series but truthfully, it doesn't matter what Laurie writes. You know that it is going to be a beautifully written book and this was no exception. Thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it

This is an excellent and taut thriller. This is the first book by Laurie King that I have read and I really enjoyed it. The short chapters with revolving perspectives and storylines keeps the pace flowing nicely. Each character is richly developed and plays an integral part in the overall story, which takes place over the span of a Career Day at the troubled Guadalupe Middle School. The theme for the Career Day is "Unexpected Threads", and we soon see just how appropriate this theme is to the overall plot of the book.

Early on in the story we are fed an ominous foreshadow of what lays in store for the staff, students, and visitors at Career Day. But before that plays out the book turns to a series of back stories for each key character intermingled with swatches of the current day that helps build the plot and the suspense. There are many twists and turns throughout. This is one of those books where you know that what you think is going to happen cannot really happen, but you have no clue what us actually going to happen when it all plays out.

Overall a solid and entertaining read. I would recommend this to fans of thrillers and suspense. I received this as a free ARC from Bantam Books, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read a third of this and then I gave up. I was enjoying it, but then found I couldn't keep up with the many, many, many (!) characters and their relationships to each other and I got frustrated.

I was so excited to read this book, it looked like something I would love, but it was so difficult to read and I couldn't connect with anyone in the book. I honestly couldn't finish it.

A good psychological thriller, meticulously plotted with interesting and compelling characters. A nice diversion from King's Holmes series.

Interesting premise, but drawn out. There were some unnecessary scenes in the novel that should have been left. The ending was a let down and was not worth the build up. Still Ms. King is a great writer, and this story is sure to please her fans.

Excellent story! Looking forward to reading more by this author! Highly recommend!

Absolutely stunning novel about a threat to a middle school career day. Intriguing characters, unexpected twists and turns and satisfying relationships. Very highly recommended.

5 stars

It is Career Day at Guadalupe Middle School; a school in California. It has over 700 students who for the most part are struggling with one thing or another. Gangs, violence and the disappearance of an eleven-year old girl are just some of the things that are going on.

A janitor with something to hide, the principal has a secret and her husband has a somewhat hidden past, a basketball player who likes guns just too much and other issues are just some of the situations with which the students, faculty and staff deal with daily.

“A day of possibilities,” is the way that Career Day is explained. And this is very true – but not the possibilities that the school administration was hoping for. Career Day turns into a nightmare in a few seconds in this psychological thriller.

This book is very well written and plotted. It is filled with suspense. In depth backstories are given to each of the main characters, but it does not take away from the tension or the main story at all. Interestingly enough this is my first Laurie King novel and I can’t believe what I’ve been missing all this time. I will most certainly go to Amazon and look for her other novels!

I want to thank Netgalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine/Bantam for forwarding to me a copy of this most wonderful book to read.