Highly Recommend! I love a novels based on a school setting and this book did not disappoint. The Winner Maker is a complex story as well as a mystery filled with great characters and twisty plot lines. At the start of the novel we are introduced to a group of late 20's movers and shakers that are all part of a magical high school clique called "The Winners." The Winners are chosen and coached privately by a now septuagenarian English teacher named Mr Fiske who is famous for doing his own thing and bucking the school system. The Winners are groomed and well supported to be professionally successful and Mr. Fiske goes to extraordinarily lengths to ensure that they are successful.
Mr. Fiske is missing at the start of the novel and the race to find him and a young student who he may or may not be involved with interrupts all of the Winners' professional and personal lives. A great mystery with believable and likable characters, Enjoy the ride!

This novel was a thrill to read. Mystery, murder, relationships... Thanks to the author and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The effect of high school, relationships, status, reputation, expectations, and regrets all come to a head in this murder mystery. Being designated as a “Winner” by veteran English teacher (see Robin Williams in “Dead Poets’ Society”) Mr. Fiske is so important to the eighteen-year olds, and the label propels and/or haunts them as they age. When Fiske turns up missing along with one of his students, Winners are re-united to find their mentor. The plot progresses very well as Winners become suspects, relationships are examined, and a high school death is shown to be related to present-day. circumstances.