Originally published: 19 August 2021

Author: Samantha Downing

Published by: Michael Joseph

Genre: Thriller

Length: 400 pages

Listening Dates: 30 August – 2 September 2021

Teddy Crutcher won Teacher of the Year at the prestigious Belmont Academy. Everyone thinks he’s brilliant.

Only you know the truth.

They all smile when he tells us his wife couldn’t be more proud.

But no-one has seen her in a while.

They’re impressed when he doesn’t let anything distract him – even the tragic death of a school parent.

Even when the whispers start, saying it was murder.

You’re sure Teddy is hiding something about what happened that day.

You’re sure you can prove it.

But you didn’t stop to think that when it comes to catching a killer, there’s no place more dangerous than just one step behind…

Teddy Crutcher is a teacher at the exclusive private school Belmont Academy. He has just won teacher of the year but as we see his thoughts, we can see he isn’t the outstanding pillar of the school community everyone thinks he is.

He doesn’t much like any of the pupils, especially the ones he thinks come across with a sense of entitlement. One of these pupils is Zach who Teddy has taken a dislike to and downgrades a paper just because he can. Teddy also doesn’t like most of the teachers, but he especially dislikes Sonia Benjamin who is about to accept her 10 year teacher award and is a true member of the Belmont family, having attended school there herself. He also receives regular hateful emails from a former pupil who wasn’t able to get into a decent college as he accused her of cheating on her reference letter, purely because he didn’t believe anyone could perform so consistently at school. And then she turns up at Belmont as a supply teacher.

I thoroughly enjoyed For Your Own Good. Being able to see several characters thoughts was great because we could see a real insight into their characters – the good and the bad. The pupils are rich and have every privilege offered to them which makes Teddy resent them. A cast of thoroughly dislikeable characters who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

An utterly compelling and shocking read, this is my first book by Samantha Downing and it won’t be my last! A twisty turny and clever thriller that isn’t afraid to go wherever it wants!

Thank you to Kallie for sending me a finished copy of the book. Check out the rest of the blog tour below:

About the author:

As the daughter of Jamaican parents of African, Samantha Downing is the author of the bestselling My Lovely Wife, nominated for Edgar, ITW, Macavity, and CWA awards. Amazon Studios and Nicole Kidman’s Blossom Films have partnered to produce a feature film based on the novel.

Her second book, He Started It, was released in 2020 and became an instant international bestseller. Her third thriller, For Your Own Good, will be released in the US on July 20, 2021.​

She currently lives and works in New Orleans..

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smariedowning
Website: https://www.samanthadowning.com/