Meg Foley's had three teaching jobs in the last four years, but when the comfortable, affluent suburban New Jersey school district offers her a post replacing a middle school teacher who died in a tragic accident, it looks as though she's finally found her niche. Her students--bright, motivated overachievers--are a far cry from the inner-city kids who were her last charges. But there's something going on in her classroom that worries her. Her eighth graders are keeping a secret about the way Mrs. Wilkens died, and when Meg tries to get to the bottom of it, bizarre things begin to happen. A stranger tries to push her car into the path of an oncoming truck; a pervert plays a sick joke on her; and a gang of marauding kids terrifies her. When Dan Jarrett, an L.A. cop who was her late father's partner, comes to her rescue, he's stonewalled, too--by the police chief whose grandson may be involved in Mrs. Wilkens' death, the principal and school board who want to cover it up, and especially the quiet little community that wants Jarrett and Foley to go back where they came from. The author is particularly skilled in evoking adolescent angst, and readers of this tidy little suspense novel will hope to encounter Dan Jarrett again in another outing by the author.