Killing Mr. Griffin

Killing Mr. Griffin

Author	Lois Duncan
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Suspense
Publisher	Little Brown
Publication date	April 1978
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	243 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	0-316-19549-9 (first edition, hardback)
OCLC	3540946
LC Class	PZ7.D9117 Ki

Killing Mr. Griffin is a 1978 novel for young adults by Lois Duncan about a group of teenage students at a New Mexico high school who plan to kidnap their strict English teacher, Mr. Griffin.^[1] The book was adapted into a television film that aired on NBC on April 7, 1997,^[2] sharing the same title and starring Jay Thomas, Mario Lopez, Amy Jo Johnson, Michelle Williams, and Scott Bairstow.^[3] Another film with a similar theme and title, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, was released in 1999 and was written and directed by Kevin Williamson (who had previously adapted Duncan's 1973 book I Know What You Did Last Summer).^[4]

Plot

Brian Griffin is a strict high school English/literature teacher at Del Norte High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico who never accepts late homework and is demanding of his students. After he gives out F's to a group of students who turn in papers late, the students—the "popular" crowd—decide to get revenge by kidnapping him.

The group of friends includes Mark Kinney, the mastermind of the "prank", David Ruggles, president of the high school's senior class, Jeff Garrett, a basketball player, Betsy Cline, the head cheerleader, and Susan McConnell, a little nerdy girl who isn't usually part of the popular crowd. Mr. Griffin recognized a paper Mark plagiarized, with help from his college-age girlfriend, as being from the college at which Mr. Griffin had last worked as an assistant professor. Jeff obeys Mark, despite his parents' disapproval of Mark, and does things for the group like driving them around and often paying for their meals. Betsy is a spoiled and manipulative, but popular, girl, who has a crush on Mark. David is working toward a state university scholarship, which is grade-based; the previous English teacher, Dolly Luna, gave him A's, but Mr. Griffin gives him C's. David faces further pressures, as he needs ultimately to help support his family, since his mother is in a dead-end secretarial job, his sickly, nagging grandmother lives with them, and the father is out of the picture.

The group decides to use Susan, who is least willing to participate in the plot, to distract Mr. Griffin by requesting a conference with him after school. Since Susan is one of his better-performing students with a serious approach to her studies, Mr. Griffin willingly does so, allowing Susan to walk him to his car afterwards. Jeff, David and Mark then jump Mr. Griffin and tie him up.

The students take Mr. Griffin to a spot in the mountains, so remote that Mark is the only one who has been there, for outings with his former girlfriend, Lana Turnbolt. Betsy, thanks to a speeding ticket, arrives in the parking lot after the boys have left with Mr. Griffin. Susan was supposed to ride with Betsy, but doesn't want any part in the scheme and Betsy leaves without her. The group taunts Mr. Griffin, telling him to beg for his life or they will kill him. They take Mr. Griffin's medicine and see that on the bottle it says "nitroglycerin". Jeff smashes the medicine with a rock to see if it will explode and then leaves the bottle on the ground. Mark tells Mr. Griffin to beg or they will abandon him there overnight; Mr. Griffin refuses, so the students leave.

Susan defies Mark and begs David to go check on Mr. Griffin. The two find him dead, as a result of heart failure from not taking his medication, and they hurry to find the other students. Mark decides to cover up the death instead of going to the police. Mr. Griffin's wife Kathy goes to the police the next day, because her husband has not returned home. A police officer pulls Susan from class to question her, because she was the last person to see Mr. Griffin alive to their knowledge. Mark meets her in the hallway before she reaches the office and instructs Susan on what to tell the police, that Mr. Griffin spent the whole conference looking at his watch and left with a pretty woman.

Everyone except for Susan heads to the mountains and they bury Mr. Griffin, with Jeff taking charge of Mr. Griffin's dark green Chevrolet. Jeff repaints the car gray, telling his parents that he's fixing a friend's car. David and Betsy drive it to the airport and wipe the fingerprints from the steering wheel. Susan does not help, because the group is afraid she might have a nervous breakdown. Betsy, who has a crush on Mark, resents Susan's role in disposing of the evidence, and is jealous that Mark is spending so much time with a plain girl like Susan.

Kathy Griffin visits Susan's home, upset because she believes that Susan lied in her report to the police, as Mr. Griffin couldn't have been wearing his watch that day, because it was at home, broken. She asks Susan to contact her if Susan remembers anything more. Days later, Mark's ex-girlfriend, Lana, has a picnic with her fiancee at the secret place in the mountains, where they discover Mr. Griffin’s medicine bottle. Informing the police, they also mention that there was a patch of dirt that looked as though it had been recently uprooted. The police investigate, and find Mr. Griffin's body buried in the hole. Brian Griffin's murder is all over the news.

David’s grandmother finds Mr. Griffin's ring that David stole, but believes it belongs to David's father, and that David has been secretly meeting with his father. David's mother does not take his grandmother seriously, but the conspirators know they need to hide or destroy the ring since it is evidence of their crime. However, the grandmother will not return the ring to David until she gets to meet with David's father. However, she is later killed, a neighbor referring to the killer suspect as a "boy in a brown sweater." When David learns that she is dead, he is overcome with grief and takes no further part in the plot. Susan makes the connection, knowing that Mark has a brown sweater he wears all the time, and that Mark would stop at nothing to get what he needed - in this case, the ring.

Susan threatens to tell the police all that the group has done. Mark orders Jeff and Betsy to tie Susan up, and they leave. Mark tells Susan what really happened to his father - that he set their house on fire and killed his father. Mark sets her curtains on fire and Susan realizes he intends to do the same to her. Miraculously, Susan is saved by Kathy Griffin, who recognizes her husband's Chevy in Susan's driveway when she sees Susan's house on fire. Though the car had been repainted, the gray color can't be made out in the dark, and Mrs. Griffin recognizes the patched upholstery.

The conspiracy unravels with all of those involved facing varying criminal charges, except for Susan who is granted amnesty in exchange for her testimony at Mark's three murder trials. The novel ends with Susan's mother telling her that Mark will be blamed for manipulating her along with the other students, because he has been diagnosed as a psychopath, and Kathy Griffin presenting Susan with a note that her husband had written before his death, praising Susan for her work and recognizing her potential, a note that the Griffins had argued about the morning the murder took place.

Characters

Mr. Griffin: The English teacher of Del Norte High School and graduate/assistant professor of Stanford University; he is brutally demanding, and refuses to give his students second chances regarding their work. His strict nature is caused largely by a heart condition, the medication for which has the side effect of making him short-tempered and sharp-tongued. Ultimately, Del Norte's in-crowd is driven to kidnap him and to deny him his medication, which ultimately kills him. He is married to Kathy Griffin, who is expecting their first child.

Susan "Sue" McConnell: The only daughter of her family. She is considered a perfect student but is plain-looking and lacks confidence. Her brothers, all of whom have inherited their parents' good looks, tease her about her nondescript appearance and her presumed fate as an "old maid." She has a deep crush on David.

Mark Kinney: A mentally unstable teen from a broken family. He set his father on fire and watched him burn in the past. His mother told him to his face that she never wanted to see him. He was "adopted" by his aunt and uncle. His charming personality often lets him manipulate others. He exhibits many of the signs of sociopathy.

Jeff Garrett: Del Norte High's star basketball player. He is dense and obedient, and is easily manipulated by Mark, whom he worships. He is dating Betsy, unaware she's using him to get close to Mark, who is not even slightly interested in her.

Betsy Cline: The popular head cheerleader, Jeff's girlfriend, and the only child of the county commissioner, Harold Cline and his wife Liz. Although she is not conventionally pretty, she is considered wholesome and sweet, and is able to use her confidence and superficial charm to manipulate people around her. At heart, however, she is conniving and selfish. She is in love with Mark, yet he is completely uninterested in her.

David Ruggles: Senior president. Initially, David uses Susan's crush on him to cajole her into helping with the kidnap plot, however he soon grows to return her affection. Many fans believe him to be Mr. Griffin's son, but is not stated in the book and Duncan has confirmed this is not true.^[5]

Irma Ruggles: David's sickly grandmother. Ever since getting evicted from her apartment for being delinquent on the rent, Irma has lived with her son, daughter-in-law and grandson (until her son walks out on the family one day); she runs up their bills, spends their money without permission, and makes bad impressions on their guests. She causes trouble for Mr. Griffin's killers by finding his ring in David's room; Irma refuses to surrender it until she meets David's father, whom she's convinced gave the ring to David. It is implied (and later confirmed) that she is killed by Mark (whom she refers to as 'the boy with the funny eyes') in order to get the ring.

Kathy Griffin: Griffin's pregnant wife. Despite his harsh treatment of his students, Griffin is a loving and attentive husband to her. Although she and Griffin have little in common, they are happily married.

Dolly Luna: An English teacher at Del Norte High, who, unlike Griffin, is popular with the students because of her friendly and lenient nature. In contrast to Griffin, Dolly Luna gives her students second chances and praises them for their efforts. Although she is well-liked by the class, Griffin openly holds her in disdain, describing her to his wife as "a thirty-year-old teenager."

Reissue and Updates

In October 2010, Little, Brown, the publishers of many of Duncan's titles, reissued a her books with updates to modernize some of the content.^[6] Killing Mr. Griffin was in the first group of ten different titles that was updated and reissued with these changes.^[6] Small details were changed to include references to modern factors such as Google, cellphones, and clothing choices.^[6]

Television film

The book was adapted into a television film of the same title in 1997. It starred Scott Bairstow, Amy Jo Johnson, and Jay Thomas as Mr. Griffin and was directed by Jack Bender.

References

External links

• Lois Duncan