Jared Westover

Academia Criminalis Jared Westover

Transitive Youth Maxwell Archer is a young, struggling college professor haunted by the death of his mentor. His second book is a disaster, and now he's forced to confront a series of lies he's told when a student, Rosemary Black, discovers the truth about his past. Rosemary has problems of her own; her part-time modeling job is putting more pressure on her than she can handle, and she makes a rash decision that leads her into the arms of a man with a treacherous past. Death's Pass A fan letter, an honorary award and a death threat. Three letters upended Chuck Schuller's life. No one is buying his latest book, Rockefeller's Capital Crimes, so he reluctantly accepts an invitation to return to his alma mater for a token honor, hoping it might spark interest in his book; he needs it to sell if he's going to pay for his unwanted divorce. Coming back to Whitaker College means confronting his old college girlfriend, Ada Brill, who he's sure sent the unsigned death threat. Angry, hapless and broke, Chuck wants Ada to finally admit he's the father of her daughter, Callie, but he doesn't know that Callie committed suicide just days before his arrival back in town. Foucault High Independently wealthy principal Paul Damien comes to the small town of San Miguel in 1983 with dreams of creating a disciplined, happy and utterly controlled student body. He gives an unlucky few students the chance to eliminate all the troublemakers from the school and implement programs to encourage desired behavior. It seems like a good chance to make Foucault High better, but at what cost? Transitive Youth, Death's Pass and Foucault High examine the intersection of academics and criminality and the ways everyone must reckon with the past.