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Susan Bacon
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The History Teacher Kindle Edition

by Susan Bacon (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 443 ratings
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"RIVETING" — Midwest Book Review

A 2020 IPPY Award Winner, The History Teacher is a cerebral political mystery and a classic page-turner

During the blizzard of 1978, a woman is discovered face down at the edge of her Delaware estate, a dog half-dead by her side. Nearby, a CIA officer lies buried under two feet of snow. Their secret meeting—sabotaged. When Emma Quinn gets a call in her Manhattan apartment—your grandmother, found dead—she has no reason to suspect foul play. But she is drawn into an intrigue that harks back to the beginnings of the Cold War—and forced to confront the truth about her family and history as we know it.

PRAISE FOR THE HISTORY TEACHER

“Susan Bacon's THE HISTORY TEACHER is a rare thriller . . . scrupulously researched, cagily and compellingly plotted and eminently credible. . . . thought-provoking as both history and fiction. And oh yeah, a pleasure to read, written, sentence by sentence, with the eye of a shrewd observer and the ear of a writer who knows language is music.” — BRUCE WEBER, journalist and author of Life Is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist

“Starting with a baffling double murder in a snowstorm in Delaware . . . THE HISTORY TEACHER rushes the reader through a perilous intersection of chateau country wealth, the academic world in Manhattan and Cold War intrigue . . . an excellent, well-crafted debut novel.” — CURTIS WILKIE, journalist and author of The Fall of the House of Zeus

“THE HISTORY TEACHER is . . . a lively, classic page-turner—full of spying, murder and double dealing. Emma Quinn and her grandmother Margaret are 20th century heroines who would have to wait for a 21st century writer as skilled and clever as Bacon . . . to imagine their brave and savvy pursuit of the truth.” —EMILY YELLIN, journalist and author of Our Mothers’ War
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  1. Print length
    354 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    Aug. 15 2019
  5. File size
    1416 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
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  9. See all details
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Product description

Review

"Susan Bacon's The History Teacher is a rare thriller . . . scrupulously researched, cagily and compellingly plotted and eminently credible. . . . thought-provoking as both history and fiction. And oh yeah, a pleasure to read, written, sentence by sentence, with the eye of a shrewd observer and the ear of a writer who knows language is music."

-- Bruce Weber, journalist and author of Life Is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist

"Starting with a baffling double murder in a snowstorm in Delaware . . . The History Teacher rushes the reader through a perilous intersection of chateau country wealth, the academic world in Manhattan and Cold War intrigue . . . an excellent, well-crafted debut novel."

-- Curtis Wilkie, journalist and author of The Fall of the House of Zeus

"The History Teacher is . . . a lively, classic page-turner--full of spying, murder and double dealing. Emma Quinn and her grandmother Margaret are 20th century heroines who would have to wait for a 21st century writer as skilled and clever as Bacon . . . to imagine their brave and savvy pursuit of the truth."

-- Emily Yellin, journalist and author of Our Mothers' War

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Susan Bacon's career as a writer spans more than 30 years. She is a former journalist, an author, an award-winning copywriter and a ghost writer. Her own writing has been published under the names Susan Dynerman, Susan Turley and Susan Bacon. And her ghostwriting credits include an international best seller. THE HISTORY TEACHER is her debut novel. A graduate of Barnard College with a degree in history, Susan began her career as an editor of Memphis magazine and a stringer for Time and Fortune. She also worked as a corporate speech writer and ad copywriter in Memphis before moving to Washington DC. In the early '90s, Susan wrote (or co-wrote) two books on the politics of parenting, including ARE OUR KIDS ALL RIGHT?, a Parents' Choice selection. An advocate for enlightened family leave and child care policies, she was featured in major media, including NBC's Today Show and USA Today. During that time, she also contributed feature stories to The Washington Post. In 1996, Susan joined the staff of a DC-based design firm as a senior writer. Six years later, she returned to Memphis and started her own business doing writing projects for a mix of clients and helping other authors with their books. She also pulled a handful of old short stories out of a drawer and began writing fiction in earnest. In 2009, Susan studied with Richard Bausch in his Moss Workshop in Fiction. She wrote one novel and then another. THE HISTORY TEACHER, her second, was published in 2019. Susan lives and writes in Memphis, Tennessee. For more information, visit SusanBacon.com. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07W5QQMYQ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Porter Street Press (Aug. 15 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1416 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 443 ratings

About the author

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Susan Bacon

Susan Bacon

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Susan's award-winning debut novel, THE HISTORY TEACHER, pays homage to the political thrillers of the 1970s and was inspired, in part, by her fascination with the Alger Hiss case. “The story is set in the past. But it’s a tale for our times about privilege, politics and America’s place in the world,” she says. “After all, when it comes to history, all roads lead to the present.”

The audiobook, released in February 2024, is now available on Audible, iTunes and Amazon. And a sequel to THE HISTORY TEACHER is slated for release in June 2024.

A graduate of Barnard College with a degree in history, Susan is a former journalist, an author, an award-winning copywriter and a ghost writer whose credits include an international best seller.

PRAISE for THE HISTORY TEACHER

"An inherently riveting suspense thriller of a novel" — MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

“fresh and eye-opening” — EMILY YELLIN, author of Our Mothers’ War

“cagily and compellingly plotted and eminently credible” — BRUCE WEBER, author of Life Is a Wheel: Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist

"a satisfying page-turner . . . and the ending is perhaps the most satisfying of all." — MEMPHIS FLYER

“an excellent, well-crafted debut” — CURTIS WILKIE, author of The Fall of the House of Zeus

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
443 global ratings

Top reviews from Canada

There are 0 reviews and 4 ratings from Canada

Top reviews from other countries

Doris Quigley
5.0 out of 5 stars History you can enjoy reading
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2023
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I enjoy historical novels which are well researched and properly edited.
The characters and settings were well developed and helped generate interest in the historical events portrayed.
Best praise is that I learned some things.
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Eleanor
5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Many were accused of spying and of being communists in those days, not all were guilty.
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Ingdur
4.0 out of 5 stars history indeed
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2019
Verified Purchase
My knowledge of the period involved is too scarce to be able to remember. But the backdrop is real ! Several countries sold weapons to fighting parties, no matter which side, money ! Awful.
And the game of war still goes on, killing millions, men, women, children, elderly, babies. Why does no one do anything about this ? Because too much money is involved ! Money is the devil of the world.
I only gave 4 stars because at times I lost the thread, but that is because I didn't know anything of the background. Found no grammatical errors, no mistakes, perfect book ! Great read.
9 people found this helpful
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Gillian O’Mara
4.0 out of 5 stars Hiss
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 11, 2020
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I am not a reader of history and am not very knowledgable on the subject but enjoyed this book and there were moments I didnt want to put it down. Thank you again for the enjoyable read and a little info at the end re Britain and USA supplying the weapons to Iran and Iraq. Hopefully in years to come the world will be at peace
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dave10
5.0 out of 5 stars And So We Beat On ....
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2020
Verified Purchase
Someone already beat me to the punch in pointing out how Faulkner’s insight that “the past is not really past” is one of the keys to making The History Teacher — Susan Bacon’s blend of narrative history with the methods of a modern thriller — such a rewarding journey. The past, in this case, comes crashing onto contemporary shores with a deep regularity, bearing both wisdom and warning in the surge of each new breaker. By including a respected and influential family in the action, Bacon creates a world — one in which the past follows us like a muted image in a tinted mirror. We find ourselves forced to rediscover the ways in which our values, our courage, and yes, our personal history beckons. To quote yet another influential artist whose words have become prophetic, we must “get back to where we once belonged.”
2 people found this helpful
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