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Evil in the principal�s office Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Rita Hogan, a school teacher from Eagle Point, has written a murder mystery with a novel twist: The heroine of "Bloody Instructions" is a teacher, whose detective work uncovers nefarious doings by bad guys who are ... school administrators. In this murder mystery, the heroine � like the author � is a teacher By Bill Varble Forget cops and private eyes. The sleuth in Rita Hogan�s new mystery novel is ... a teacher. Like many fictional detectives, Justine Herrera, the gumshoe in Hogan�s "Bloody Instructions," is drawn into the case before she realizes what�s happening. Unlike most detectives, Justine has spent a career facing down not gun-toting bad guys but high school kids. And unlike perhaps any fictional detective before her, when she squares off with the villain and his minions, she�s facing ... school administrators. "There are several evil people in the administration," she says. "You have to have someone you love to hate." Hogan figures she knows the turf. She taught English for 20 years until resigning this month from Eagle Point High School. She was voted best teacher by seniors at the school in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 school years. She plans to write more books and substitute teach. She�s not accusing anybody in real life of a criminal conspiracy, but she has her criticisms of the system. "I was very idealistic when I started teaching," she says. That was in 1979 in Pilot Butte Junior High in Bend. "Things seem to be deteriorating." She believes that school districts these days are top-heavy with administrators at the expense of teaching kids. "I could find a better use for the money than another administrator," she says. "When I started there was a principal and vice principal. Now there are a couple of vice principals and a dean or two; the list is endless." In "Bloody Instructions," Justine doesn�t like what she sees when she follows the money. "I find it intriguing that we seemingly have the money for administrative and council trips all over kingdom come, but we can�t afford to buy our students the new textbooks they need and deserve," the fictional Justine says at a meeting of teachers and their principal. Justine�s mentor, a beloved principal, has been forced into retirement and replaced with a follower of a power-hungry superintendent who uses students as guinea pigs and brooks no opposition. By the time Justine�s best friend is murdered and her 9-year-old son abducted, her list of suspects is long, and time is running out. Like Alfred Hitchcock, Hogan has put an ordinary woman into extraordinary circumstances. "Actually, the only Hitchcock I thought of was a story from his TV show about a nurse who was a killer," Hogan says. Hogan, an admitted mystery junkie, figures she knows what women want. "I know women like certain things," she says. "They like to have a female compadre, so I gave Justine a friend. Women understand they can have close relationships that aren�t sexual. They want to see strong women." Although Justine enlists the aid of a male detective, Hogan didn�t play up the obligatory romantic angle in the story. "I wasn�t comfortable with that," she says. She says she�d dreamed of writing fiction for 20 years, and an inner voice kept telling her she was only a technical writer. She finally thought, "If John Grisham can write about the law, why can�t I write about being a teacher?" In her research into real-world administration, she sought and received help from Medford schools Superintendent Steve Wisely and former school board member Eileen Ashpole. For help with police procedure and gun lore, she talked to Tony Baker of the Oregon State Police and Chuck Steinberg of the Medford Police Department. "I tried not to get carried away with it; my intention was to create a page turner. I wanted action, but I don�t like a lot of shootings and car chases." Is she on a mission? "It�s a what-if scenario," she says. "I wanted to warn people if certain things lined up, things could happen." For her next book, Hogan says she wants to do yet more research: do ride-alongs with the cops, visit shooting ranges and maybe go to a crime scene. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA