Death, Unchartered. Dorothy Van Soest

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      Advance Reviews

      The hard-boiled detective gets a unique update for our kinder, gentler twenty-first century in the form of Sylvia Jensen, the hard-codependent social worker-turned detective in Death, Uncharted, the second in this thoroughly entertaining series. Writer Dorothy Van Soest elevates dysfunction to art as her protagonist—a more realistic and insecure version of Jessica Fletcher—explores crime and murder at the center of America’s increasingly corporate approach to education—an investigation that sets her at odds with some very dangerous people.

      — Shawn Otto, award-winning American novelist, nonfiction author, filmmaker, political strategist, speaker, science advocate, and screenwriter and co-producer of the movie House of Sand and Fog.

      In this cold case mystery—a small boy has been murdered in the South Bronx in the late 1960s—we encounter a young teacher torn between her passionate determination to help her disadvantaged students and her increasingly hopeless realization that choosing to side with the children will alienate her from her union colleagues, forcing her out of her profession. As someone who taught in New York City during the epic 1968 teacher’s strike, reading Death Unchartered sent me back in a time machine, not unlike the heroine, Sylvia Jensen, who returns to the Bronx to solve this crime and connect once again with the angels and demons of her past. In the context of more recent strife over charter schools, this novel invites us to consider a range of destructive forces—whether intractable unions (who are compelled to regard any concession as a “slippery slope”) or greedy corporations seeking to “do well by (simulating) doing good”—that block, to this day, equal opportunity for schoolchildren. Death Unchartered urges us to translate these conflicts into stark terms, and, like all murder stories, focuses essentially on the question of who people really are: Who are the ones who help? Who are the ones who harm? In mysteries, anyway, if not in life, we enjoy the satisfaction of knowing a passionate detective has set out to prove such harm can be stopped.

      — Alan Feldman. Author, Immortality, winner of the Mass Book Award for Poetry, Massachusetts Center for the Book

      When Sylvia Jensen learns about a child’s corpse found in the basement of a Bronx derelict school building that’s being razed, she fears it may be the body of a boy who’d suddenly disappeared nearly forty years before. As a third grade teacher in that very school, “Ms. Sylvia,”as her students had known her, had championed young Markus LeMeur who’d mysteriously disappeared. Compelled to seek the truth and avenge the boy’s death, she returns to the Bronx where she encounters much more than she bargained for. The plot thickens as she revisits her past as a young teacher-activist who’d taken a strong stand against a controversial teachers’strike that threatened to close the school. Embedded in this fast-paced murder mystery are serious themes, including political corruption, the harsh injustices of poverty and racism, and the misappropriation of millions of dollars intended for public education. Surprising twist and turns of plot kept me guessing down to the final page. I couldn’t help to compare this to the mysteries of Sue Grafton’s whose novels I’ve enjoyed from “A” through “Y.”

      — Hal Zina Bennett, bestselling author of Write From the Heart: Unleashing the Power of Your Creativity

      Death, Uncharted is a captivating read. Every chapter is filled with intrigue and suspense juxtaposing events within a public school that occur in 1968 to ones that converge with the building of a Charter School in 2006. This book shows how ethnic minority children fall victim to unjust and corrupt educational systems. Van Soest brilliantly interweaves the problems that exist in both public and charter schools, with the ethical and moral struggles of teachers who genuinely want to help children. The narrative shows the toll that unjust systems take on both teachers and students and reflexively asks the reader to consider the motives behind charter schools that claim to provide a better education. It is must read for all students and professionals in social work and education.

      — Cynthia Franklin, PhD, LCSW Associate Dean for Doctoral Education Stiernberg/Spencer Family Professor in Mental Health Steve Hicks School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin

      Most murder stories focus on investigative processes. The best provide a side dish of social inspection. But Death, Unchartered takes an additional leap into complexity by providing the subplot of an inner city teacher’s efforts to help disadvantaged children at all costs . . . creating a riveting production pairing a murder mystery with ethical and moral conundrums. . . . It’s this broader perspective that makes Death, Unchartered more than just another murder ‘whodunnit’ but an unrelenting probe into the impact of greed and special interests on the educational system . . . a gripping read with a surprising outcome.

      — D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

      The second novel in . . . the Sylvia Jensen Mystery Series reunites the recently former social worker with Native American investigative reporter J.B. Harrell, setting them on a quest to uncover the truth about the disappearance of a young boy in the Bronx almost four decades ago. . . . Van Soest is a skilled writer, equally adept with dialogue and narrative. . . A solid, engaging mystery with a timely plot.

      — Kirkus Review

      Death, Unchartered is a haunting read that will cause readers to sit up and take notice. It is a powerful journey wrapped up in an intense mystery/thriller one won’t soon forget.

      — Paige Lovitt, Reader Views

      . . . a strong voice exploring a passionate search for justice in a murder mystery . . . involved in social issues, school systems, and the treatment of students while exploring relationships in the past and present, and the fight for justice.

      —Five-Star Review, Readers’ Favorite

      ALSO BY DOROTHY VAN SOEST

      FICTION

      Just Mercy

      At the Center

      NON-FICTION

      Diversity Education for Social Justice

      Social Work Practice for Social Justice

      The Global Crisis of Violence: Common Problems, Universal Causes, Shared Solutions

      Challenges of Violence Worldwide: An Educational Resource

      Challenges of Violence Worldwide: Curriculum Module

      Incorporating Peace and Social Justice into the Social Work Curriculum

      Empowerment of People for Peace

      Death, Unchartered

      A Novel

      Death, Unchartered

      A Novel

      Dorothy Van Soest

      Copyright © 2018 by Dorothy Van Soest

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher (except by reviewers who may quote brief passages).

      First Edition

      Casebound ISBN: 978-1-62720-196-4

      Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62720-197-1

      Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62720-198-8

      Printed in the United States of America

      Design: Serena Chenery

      Development & Marketing: Kieran O’Shea

      Published by Apprentice House

      Apprentice House

      Loyola University Maryland

      4501 N. Charles Street

      Baltimore, MD 21210

      410.617.5265 • 410.617.2198 (fax)

      www.ApprenticeHouse.com

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