Description: " Obedience is evidence that crime fiction is hardly a played-out genre . [G]rafts the world-turned-upside-down suspense of a Harlan Coben thriller to the hall-of-mirrors vertigo of a novel by Paul Auster . [I]ts ultimate implications continue to spin out in a reader's mind after the final page is turned." - Wall Street Journal "Authentic puzzle mysteries are an endangered species in these hectic times, so it's a genuine, if slightly perverse, kick to follow every byzantine clue in this bizarre game. If you solve this one without peeking at the last chapter, it''s an automatic A." - New York Times Book Review " Obedience is a fiendishly clever thriller, debut or no, and Lavender exhibits deft control at the wheel." -Bookgasm.com " Obedience is quite a twisty little number . the taunting nature of the challenge is irresistible." - New York Daily News "[T]his is one of those high-concept thrillers with a final twist that upends all expectations, filled with characters who are not what they seem." -Entertainment Weekly "Obedience is a full course load of sinister fun." - Salon.com An inspired thriller about cognitive dissonance, conjectural misdirection and the conspicuous dichotomy between academia and the real world." -Kirkus Reviews "Will Lavender stuns with this compelling thriller. The surreal but believable landscape fairly bursts from its confines, goading the reader into finishing just one more page." - Louisville Courier-Journal "It's a terrific book, part cat-and-mouse mystery and part psychological study of group behavior. [A] wonderful book with a strong emotional punch at the end." - St. Petersburg Times "Lavender's first novel suggests he has a bright future. The novel is briskly plotted with deft narrative. Obedience builds to a swirling conclusion. It becomes a place where morality is blurred and intentions drift astray." - Tampa Tribune "In his tautly strung debut novel, Obedience , literature professor Will Lavender tears a page of out Milgram's notebooks and sets into motion a chain of events that escalates far beyond its intended intellectual exercise. . . . Mystery fans will be satisfied to hang on around the story's hairpin turns as the list of suspects swells and narrows with the unearthing of each clue, but Lavender . . . is aiming at a broader target and posing deeper questions." - Bookpage "First-time novelist Lavender has a knack for creepy characters and red herrings." - Library Journal "First novelist Lavender has sprinkled his text with enough red herrings to feed the Biblical 5,000 but uses them to build page-turning suspense. . . . Lavender's invocation of the notorious Milgram experiment conducted at Yale on obedience to authority adds an additionaland salutarylayer of psychological meaning to his elaborate plot." - Booklist More Praise for Obedience: " Obedience draws you in and never lets go - and what a ride!" -David Baldacci "In his dream-like and labyrinthine debut, Will Lavender delivers a clever, intricate page-turner that kept me guessing late into the night. Obedience is a house of mirrors where every corner we turn is a false reflection of the truth until the shocking final scene. A gripping exploration of human nature and all its foibles told in Lavender''s fresh and original voice, Obedience is not to be missed." -Lisa Unger "Obedience is a very scary story set on the border where good meets evil, located in this case in that scariest of places, academia. Taut, twisty, and highly original: the pages turned themselves." -Peter Abrahams "A taut and timely thriller that explores the dark side of academia, where classrooms are dangerous and paranoia abounds." -Karin Slaughter "A taut, clever puzzle, so artfully crafted and tightly wound that it springs open its trap when you least expect it to." -Carol Goodman, author of The Sonnet Lover and The Ghost Orchid "A devilishly inventive debut that reads like a house of mirrors. Nothing is what it seems, right up to the devastating finale." -Brian Freeman, author of Stripped From the Hardcover edition.

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