Old Students Never Die

 Old Students Never Die (1962) by Ivan T. Ross (Robert Rossner)

Ben Gordon is a high school teacher who has just come to the end of one of "those" years. A year where there didn't seem to be a single student who wanted to learn or who showed a spark of interest in what Gordon had to teach. Nearly every year there would be some and there would be certain students who were just plain favorites. Not teacher's pets--but students who seemed to make a connection. Jackie Meadows was one of those students. He was brilliant in schoolwork, but he and Gordon connected. But, as with most students, Gordon had lost touch with him.

But this year fellow teacher Jay Gibbs asks Gordon if he remembered Meadows and did he know that he had turned out to be a very successful comedian on the night club circuit. Yes, he did...and, no, he didn't. Gordon had planned to set out early for a summer vacation road trip--to anywhere but where the school was, but Gibbs tells him that tonight is Meadows' last night at the local club and Gordon should catch the show. So, he does, enjoys the show, and meets up with Meadows after. He's surprised to find himself accepting his former student's invitation to spend the first part of summer vacation at the comedian's country place. Especially when he hears that it will be full of television types because Jackie is in the middle of negotiations for his own TV show.

What starts as a pleasant holiday in the country turns deadly when a local girl returns home and winds up murdered on the property of Jackie and his wife. The sheriff isn't too happy about the involvement of so many outsiders and takes it personally that a local girl was murdered after attending a party full of these people. He casts a suspicious eye on Jackie and Ben and all of Jackie's friends. Ben Gordon isn't above a little sleuthing of his own and it looks like he's found the killer for the Sheriff...or has he?

Of my most recent academic mystery reads, this one has been the best--though still not the strongest I've ever read. I like Ben Gordon and I enjoyed seeing this world through his eyes. His amateur sleuthing is good, though he does make some wrong turns. What I didn't enjoy was the fact that he only got to the correct solution after a disastrous incorrect one. I'm not sure that I like that particular twist that Ross gave to the plot. It just seems a bit bleak to me and I do like to see justice served at the end of a mystery. The other drawback is that Jackie, the "successful" comedian, just isn't funny. His jokes are either a bit cruel or just don't have a punch line worth waiting for. I would think it difficult to successfully portray a comedian on the page and Ross just doesn't quite bring it off. I did enjoy this enough that I look forward to reading the other Ross novel sitting on the TBR piles (Requiem for a Schoolgirl), I hope that the ending is a little more satisfying. ★★★ and 1/2

First line: They come into our lives as children--thirteen or fourteen years old, clumsy, boisterous, half-formed.

Last lines: The highway was empty. I pressed the accelerator all the way down.
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Deaths = 5 (two natural; two hit on head; one shot)

[Finished on 11/29/25]