Dear Whistleblower: A Mystery Novel

He is thirteen years old and an eighth grade honor student when he kills for the first time. He kills again just before he graduates from college, but then, afraid of the police, makes a vow to himself that he will never kill again. And he keeps that vow for many years as he becomes a solid citizen of the affluent shoreline town of Hastings, Connecticut.

Patty Bass, a runner and former actress, is elated when she is hired to teach third grade at the award-winning Island Brooke School in Hastings. Newly married and in the best of health, her own death is the farthest thing from her mind as she begins the academic year. But then Patty is shocked to discover that her renowned principal is changing standardized test scores. After she reports the test tampering to the superintendent of schools, Patty hopes that she can step back and stay out of the furor that erupts in town.

What Patty doesn't know is that her act of good citizenship has just opened the door for the cold-blooded sociopath to initiate his well-orchestrated third murder. When threatening letters addressed to "Dear Whistleblower" begin arriving in her mailbox, Patty realizes she's landed in a deadly predicament with no clear way out.

Packed with nail-biting suspense and vivid characters, Dear Whistleblower is a first-rate thriller guaranteed to keep you turning the page.

Joan Rooney Riccitelli has been a classroom teacher and school psychologist in New Haven Public Schools and Fairfield Public Schools. She earned her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut and works as a school psychologist in Fairfield. She is married and has two children and four grandchildren. This is her first novel.