Killing Mr. Griffin is a book written by author Lois Duncan. This author is also well known for the book I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Duncan writes books pertaining to the suspense, thriller and horror genres. Killing Mr. Griffin is a suspenseful thriller.

The book is about a group of teenagers planning to scare their English teacher, however, rather than scare him, they inadvertently get him killed.

What is unique about this book is the reason why the groups of teenagers want to scare their English teacher. They simply do not like the way he teaches.

This book effectively captures how even the most well-thought-out plans can go horribly wrong. It also shows how one simple mistake in a plan can be more than enough to heavily impact one’s life, or the lives of several people, in this case.

Mr. Griffin, the titular character, is portrayed as an extremely strict and demanding person in the classroom. However, when not at school, he is actually shown to be genuinely caring towards his wife and their unborn baby.

This book and another one of Duncan’s works, I Know What You Did Last Summer, are a bit similar in terms of events. Both books are suspenseful thrillers; the main characters of both books inadvertently get someone killed (though it was completely accidental in I Know What You Did Last Summer), both books have young adults for the main characters (high school students in Killing Mr. Griffin and college students in I Know What You Did Last Summer), and both books are involve the characters trying to cover up the murder afterwards.

One can relate to this book due to personal experiences with teachers that have similar teaching styles to Mr. Griffin, in which case they would wish that that certain teacher would simply change their teaching style. Additionally, by scaring said teacher, it would not change his style of teaching in the slightest. On the contrary, it would possibly do the opposite; the teacher could be even stricter than before.

In my opinion, Killing Mr. Griffin was very enjoyable because of the well-developed plot and the twist near the end of the book. Additionally, the events that transpired after the plan are even more interesting than the plan itself. The plot of the book is well-thought-out, it was addicting and the characters were very well developed. It has easily become my favorite suspenseful thriller. Killing Mr. Griffin is recommended without hesitation.