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    Killing Mr. Griffin
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    Killing Mr. Griffin
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    Killing Mr. Griffin
    Audiobook5 hours

    Killing Mr. Griffin

    Written by Lois Duncan

    Narrated by Dennis Holland

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    They only meant to scare him.

    Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating his students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when her crush asks Susan to help a group of students teach a lesson of their own, she goes along. After all, it's a harmless prank, right?

    But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another, people begin to die. Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer.

    Leave the lights on when reading this classic thriller! This new edition features modernized text and a new introduction by Lois Duncan, the master of teen horror.

    A Hachette Audio production.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateOct 5, 2010
    ISBN9781607889113
    Unavailable
    Killing Mr. Griffin
    Author

    Lois Duncan

    Lois Duncan (1934–2016) was an author of more than fifty books for young adults. Her stories of mystery and suspense have won dozens of awards and many have been named Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association. Among the many honors and accolades she has received for her work, in 2015, Lois Duncan was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.  Duncan was born Lois Duncan Steinmetz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; she grew up in Sarasota, Florida. By age ten she was submitting her work to magazines, and she had her first story published nationally when she was just thirteen. In 1994, Duncan released a nonfiction title, Who Killed My Daughter?, after her youngest child was killed in a crime that was never solved.

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    Reviews for Killing Mr. Griffin

    3.5/5

    232 ratings25 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Well written tale of teenagers being led by their peers and their desire to fit in. 158
    • 4/5
      Other than a couple of dated remarks, this chilling novel could have been written yesterday. This very scary book is about high school students who kidnap their despised English teacher to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately, Mr. Griffin has a heart condition and dies as a result of being tied up and away from his medications. It is a horrible accident. The scary part involves the students' reactions and behavior following the death. Without giving the plot away, the bad things escalate to a horrific climax.Many high schools read this novel to address peer pressure as well as psychopathic behavior. It definitely speaks to both of those issues and is a very important book. I'm not sure to whom I would recommend it.
    • 4/5
      Mr. Griffin is a strict teacher who never gives anyone any slack. What will happen when a group of students decides to scare him into being nicer and something goes wrong? Can they keep their terrible secret? Lois Duncan weaves a suspenseful story in this young adult thriller.
    • 4/5
      Read when I was a teenager! What does THAT tell you!
    • 4/5
      A group of students plan to kidnap and frighten their high school English teacher. When their plan goes to scare him goes wrong and his death is untimely, the adventure begins.
    • 4/5
      "Killing Mr. Griffin" is a harrowing story about high school students whose high school English teacher dies on them during what was "only" supposed to be a big scare they wanted to give him. Mr. Griffin is a very dedicated English teacher in an Albuquerque high school, but in his desire to teach his students discipline and dedication to their studies, he is too harsh and uncompromising, and never gives them anything other than criticism: nothing is good enough for him. One day, after a tense showdown in class between him and a few students, some of these students decide that they should give him a good scare to teach him a lesson, and get back at him for what they see as all kinds of injustices committed against them. With a psychopath as the group's mastermind (even though the others do not realize this is what he is), they hatch a plot to kidnap Mr. Griffin, blindfold him, and take him up to the mountains that are near the city. There, they plan on making him think they are going to kill him, and have him beg for his life, just as he had Mark, the group leader, beg to be reinstated into his English class after plagiarizing a term paper. At first, the plan goes as planned, but Mr. Griffin is a lot harder to break than the group had anticipated, so they leave him, with the intention of coming back later that night when he is sure to break down. It must be said that Mark is the one who pushes for this, and gets the others, who are somewhat reluctant, to go along with him. Two of them later go back sooner than planned, ridden with remorse for what they have done, but find Mr. Griffin dead. Unbeknownst to them, he had a heart condition for which he regularly had to take pills.As a consequence, the group, still led by Mark, unsuccessfully tries to get rid of the body, and cover up their tracks. It all goes terribly wrong when Mark kills an old lady when retrieving some evidence from her, and would have killed one of the group members too (because she had finally decided to go to the police), had she not been rescued at the last minute by a police detective and the wife of the very man she participated in killing. This is a very disturbing book, that deals with the charismatic power a single person can have over others, with tragic consequences in this case. What is all the more disturbing here is the fact that the main characters are all teenagers, and for the most part, do not seem to realize the gravity of what they are doing. It is as if they had lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. They are just blindly following what Mark is telling them to do, trusting in him as if he was their savior as the situation spins increasingly out of control.I thought the story was very well written, and Ms. Duncan makes her characters really believable as she also takes us inside their life at home, where they can have a very different face than the one they show in public, including Mr. Griffin. This book regularly makes its way onto banned books lists due to the subject matter, but I think it is definitely a good book to have in a high school library because it shows the dangers of peer pressure, and it can certainly trigger important discussions or reflections about it. I would recommend it for Gr. 9-12, or even 10-12 because of the troubling subject matter.
    • 4/5
      Lois Duncan appeals to a great number of YA readers. He has a knack for laying the right amount of morbidity and intrigue against the right amount of high school anxiety and youth culture that keeps his stories interesting.When several students kidnap a teacher and he somehow ends up dead, their loyalties are tested and guilt takes its toll.This is a stark tale about responsibility that I read in a classroom, and I would encourage in a classroom.
    • 4/5
      This book is a very interesting book about some high school students who hate thier english teacher. They only plan to scare thier teacher but the joke went a little to far. He is found dead what will happen to Griffin's family and what will happen to the students who only planned to scare thier teacher. Even the best plans sometimes go wrong.
    • 4/5
      Although definitely a thriller, I too found much of the evetns that took place in the novel to be quite comedic; not in a 'this is so funny' kind of way, but rather a 'warped sense of humor' kind of way. One obstacle and death after another. I was absolutely engaged in the storyline, wanting to know how these seeimingly bright high school students were going to get away with murdering their high school english teacher. Both middle and high school students will enjoy reading about these particular students whose scare tactic plan turns into more than a nightmare. A great big thumbs up!
    • 5/5
      Doing something crazy "just for the hell of it," is the reason that five high school students join together to plot the kidnapping of their English teacher, Mr. Griffin. The best laid plans are often thwarted and so in this spell binding thriller, nothing happens that is expected. The characters are credible and readers can connect with the smart but insecure junior who is depressed, the senior class president who has his life under control, the cheerleader who enjoys excitement, the bad boy who has it all figured out and the jock who just follows orders. In rapid fire, the sequence of events unfold to reveal sinister motives, secret pasts, inner fears, and anti-social behaviors that lead to unimaginable consequences. A book to be read in one sitting!
    • 5/5
      Five teenagers infuriated with the harsh demands of their English teacher, Mr. Griffin, devise a revengeful scheme to scare him. Things go awry, and these five youths find themselves faced with his murder. The characters are believable high school students, the plot moves quickly, leaving readers hanging in suspense at every turn of the plot. This thrilling mystery story touches upon many relevant themes for young adults: acceptance, peer pressure, revenge, and responsibility. Further topics which can be incorporated into discussion can include: criminal justice and psychological behaviors.
    • 3/5
      Summary: Mr. Griffin the meanest English teacher in the world. The guy can't even take a joke. Literally. When the sstudents decide it's time to give Mr. Griffin a scare, everything goes wrong. But they won't get caught right? As long as SOMEONE doesn't tell. They couldn't possibly be blamed. After all they only meant to scare him.Review: A really good book. The plot takes awhile to unfold, but after awhile you see who's fault it really is.
    • 3/5
      A group of kids decide to kidnap and intimidate their teacher, but things turn ugly. Better written and less cheesy than R.L. Stine, but still fits the mold of teenybop horror novel.
    • 5/5
      High School students plot to kill their teacher and then they do, most of the book is devoted to the coverup, highly suspenseful.
    • 4/5
      this is the second time I read this book and honestly I liked it more than the first. I feel like I noticed more details the second time through. easy reading but good none the less, now going to watch the movie and see how it compares.
    • 5/5
      [Killing Mr. Griffin] by Lois Duncan★★★★1/2From The Book:They only meant to scare him.Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating his students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when her crush asks Susan to help a group of students teach a lesson of their own, she goes along. After all, it's a harmless prank, right? But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another, people begin to die. Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer. My Views:If you have a few hours on your hands or just want to read something that doesn't weigh 500 pounds or is composed of 700 pages...this little jewel is your new best friend. In spite of someone thinking that it should be banned...it was one of the best books I've read this year. I guess I can see the reason for "banning" it but believe me teens read much worse than this every day. We have all had a teacher like Mr. Griffin. A teacher that demanded that we actually work to get the grade. Most of us though don't respond by kidnapping said teacher and inadvertently killing them. The students are just too young or too immature to see things from Mr. Griffin's side...they just know that English is no longer the breeze it was last year. So a group of students decide to try and change things but the plan was a disaster waiting to happen from the start. one of the perpetrators was charismatic but with sociopathic tendencies...one was the class president and never thought he's be suspected.... one was a star athlete that everyone liked and admired... and then there was the "Queen Bee"...the one that gets voted home coming Queen just because she breathes. They needed a decoy so they enlist the class geek Susan because she just wants to be liked. Unfortunately for them this complicates things because she out of the entire group has a conscience. Things fall apart soon due to both poor planning and sheer bad luck.Unlike some teen books, this one attempts to give the various adults' viewpoints as well as the students. It raises some questions about nature or nurture, but can be read simply for entertainment.
    • 1/5
      I loved Lois Duncan in middle school-- I read every book my library had, emailed her, and in general was a bit of a fangirl. I found her books to appeal to my favorite kind of scary: spooky, suspenseful, and horrifying, but not gory. This one, however, never did it for me. I tried to read it several times and I'm not sure I ever made it to the last page.
    • 4/5
      Another Lois Duncan book .... love them. What better way to spend you weekend. Although not as good as 'stranger with my face' which was the first Lois Duncan book i ever read.This great but VERY chilling book is one of thos thhat you sometimes feel like you want to scream at the book saying things like 'don't do it' and 'noooooooooooo'.This book is also emotional, scary and the stuff of nightmares -for teachers-The best thing about this book is the realsitic way it's told but the worst thing about it is how unrealistic the storyline isI mean who kidnaps a teacher!!! That never happens. I get that it was an accident and all but no body does that.IMPORTANT - Don't read this and think 'a group of kids kidnap their teacher, it sounds a bit babyish' IT'S NOT!This book - i think - is aimed at anyone over 10 at least. I doubt that you could grow out of it.
    • 3/5
      I had read this book as a young teenager and I don't remember what I thought of it, I soaked up so many books then and at insanely rapid paces (without the convenience of a website to log things in, hehe). This time around, I read the "updated and revised" edition. Which, wasn't as good as the original. The updates weren't necessary to make the story enhanced. They just seemed really unnecessary. (IE: adding in references to iPods, Google, cell phones, etc.) The plot is serious and I think it's decent for the age group it was intended for (not so riveting as an adult but I can appreciate the writing for the teen age it was meant for). I wish the story had wrapped up a little better and final with happened to the kiddos.
    • 3/5
      SynopsisThe story is about five high school students who plot to scare their English Teacher for being very strict in passing out failing grades. Brian Griffin, their teacher, is a high school Great Literature teacher; he is tough on students who fail to turn in their papers on time. The group of five students thinks it would be funny if they played a prank on Mr. Griffin and decide to get revenge by kidnapping him. They never wanted to kill him. But, it all goes wrong when Mr. Griffin dies of a heart attack while being tied down during the kidnapping prank.ReviewThe book is about teenagers planning a prank, a smaller crime that spirals out of their control. The central characters are both male and females. The teenagers are: Mark Kinney, David Ruggles, a handsome senior and president of the high school’s senior class; Jeff, a basketball player and Betsy, the head cheerleader, and Susan McConnell, the smart junior student. In the story, they all succumb to one character that is portrayed as a leader, and now they must take the consequences of their actions. The characters are realistic and interesting, and the difficult portrayal of Mr. Griffin is handled perfectly. The reader could easily believe he is a good man, undeserving of his fate.Two of the major themes about this novel are peer pressure and the reactions of choice and equal consequence. Teenagers need to learn at an early age that they do have a choice. Everyone has choices in everything they do, and there are positive choices that yield positive consequences, and there are negative choices that yield negative consequences.The underlying theme is to be careful with whom you put your trust in. This novel is very dark filled with suspense, mystery, and many unexpected twists. The plot and underlying subplots can get quite complicated. I personally would not recommend this book due to the community that I serve. Many of the students may actually get ideas and this book may further inspire them to “accidently commit murder.” Awards: ALA Notable children’s Book
    • 4/5
      Duncan, L. (1978). Killing Mr. Griffin. New York, NY: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers.Who would have thought that a scare would result in a death?Mr. Griffin used to be an English professor at the University of Albuquerque. He then decides to become an English teacher at Del Norte High School, because he witnesses too many students ill prepared for college. Although Mr. Griffin is passionate about teaching, he is a tough teacher. He does not accept late work; he grades hard; and he is extremely strict with his students.Betsy, David, Sue, Jeff, and Mark are students in Mr. Griffin’s class. They are not used to earning Fs on their papers. Some of them are even endangered of not graduating high school, because they are failing his English course. However, they have a plan to make Mr. Griffin change: kidnap him, take him to the mountains, and teach him a lesson. Even though the kids meticulously plan all the details, the operation is a fiasco. To their surprise, Mr. Griffin dies! Consequently, the students embark on a massive cover-up.At first the characters might seem like your typical characters: Betsy the popular cheerleader, David the senior class president, Sue the loner who likes David, Jeff the athlete, and Mark the ringleader. Yet the characters are believable because Duncan develops each character in several chapters. By doing this, readers understand the characters’ lives at home, their emotions, their insecurities, and their motivations for participating in this scheme. It is also interesting because Duncan includes chapters on Mr. Griffin. Readers see that he is not a stoic, cold-hearted teacher. In fact, he cares deeply about his students, but that he pushes them to strive for perfection.The many unexpected twists in the plot make it exciting. Readers are left wondering what else can go wrong. Readers will be completely engrossed in the novel.At the same time, the story is very disturbing. Mark the ringleader is a budding psychopath. The book describes how he has no emotion or reaction to people’s pain. He actually finds happiness in watching people suffer. These parts of the book made me feel uncomfortable.Killing Mr. Griffin is often banned from school libraries, and I can see why. Duncan is an exceptional writer, and the story seems real. Nonetheless, by banning this book, teachers and parents miss the point. The book sends an important message to teenagers about the power of influence and peer pressure. I also do not think that banning this book will do much, since adolescents are exposed to more violent images through the media. While the reading level could be appropriate for middle school students, given its violent and emotionally disturbing content, it is more suitable for high school students. I highly recommend this book for a high school library
    • 4/5
      When a group of students decide to play a prank on their least favorite teacher, the joke turns to tragedy when he suddenly dies. Will they be able to continue living their lives as if nothing happened? Will their alibis and lies be able to cover the truth? Is revenge always sweet? Lois Duncan again keeps us turning pages in this, still very popular novel, Killing Mr. Griffin. Lois Duncan has again written a well received novel that keeps YA’s reading. This book contains the elements that teenagers love to read about in stories. The high school setting and dialogue of the characters make it believable. The different stereotypes portrayed in the book are true to life in every high school around the country. I was certainly curious to find out how the story ended and had a hard time putting the book down. This is another new favorite of mine.
    • 1/5
      **Spoilers ahead**Don’t, nothing you can say will make me feel worse than I already do for having read it. It’s a YA book, but bad in an after-school-special kind of way. There are some really interesting elements, I wish Ms. Duncan had the guts to follow through and detail the consequences of the student’s actions. As it stands, the book end abruptly with a speech by Mom that runs something like- ‘It’s been 10 days since you killed your English teacher and you’re still moping over it- it’s time to get out of bed and get on with life! You were the victim of a psychopath and your father and I are going to stand by you through the trial, and with counseling we’re all going to be a happier, healthier family.’I know, right? Puke. It’s enough to make me cheer for the loonies in Natural Born Killers.
    • 4/5
      A group of high school seniors, afraid that the most unreasonable teacher in school, Mr. Griffin, will prevent them from graduating, plan to kidnap him in order to scare him and to send a message to him that he had better lighten up. They plot to enlist the help of Sue who agrees against her better judgment to help because she has a crush on David. But nothing is as it appears to be and Mr. Griffin fights back hard; He warns Sue to run thinking she was being victimized too; Griffin has a heart condition and dies and the ringleader of the group, Mark, is a psychopath who will kill anyone who gets in his way. As things continue to go wrong the kids are sucked deeper and deeper in as they try to cover their tracks. I enjoyed the quick and easy read. It is a dark read, and I couldn’t help noticing that Sue would absolutely be looking at time if it were written today. The kidnapping scene and death were gruesome. For me, the most horrifying part was that only Sue seemed to have any compassion at all for Griffin or his wife. 09/06
    • 4/5
      What happens wehn a group of teens decide to kidnap their teacher?