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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780307396105
ISBN number: 030739610X
Label: Shaye Areheart Books
Manufacturer: Shaye Areheart Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: February 19, 2008
Publishing house: Shaye Areheart Books
Release Date: February 19, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 51035
Studio: Shaye Areheart Books
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“With superb confidence, Lavender constructs a brilliant fictional web of lies, inventively warping the psychological thriller to fit the confines of a scholarly investigation.” —Kirkus Reviews
When the students in Winchester University’s Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their very first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term in six weeks, she will be murdered.
At very first the students are as intrigued by the premise of their puzzle as they are wary of the strange and slightly creepy Professor Williams. But as they delve deeper into the mystery, they begin to wonder: Is the Polly story simply a logic exercise, designed to teach them rational thinking skills, or could it be something more sinister and dangerous?
The mystery soon takes over the lives of three students as they find disturbing connections between Polly and themselves. Characters that were supposedly fictitious begin to emerge in reality. Soon, the boundary between the classroom assignment and the real world becomes blurred—and the students wonder if it is their own lives they are being asked to save.
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Rated by buyers 
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This book got mixed reviews, but I wanted to see for myself. I was lucky to find the audio version at the library and I am so happy I chose this version: the reader was terrific.
Loving books in a school setting, I was excited about this book: students in a Logic & Reasoning are asked to solve a hypothetical Kidnapping before a murder occurs. There are hints of a similar case nearby which ended in murder years ago. There are lots of twists and turns while the reader tries to figure out what is real and what is not. Be prepared for a climactic ending.
I found the book a little confusing (characters) perhaps because it was an audio, and I was left disappointed at the end. Still happy I listened to this audio.
Rated by buyers -
Obedience
By Will Lavender
Obedience sets us up on the very first day of logic class for some students. The professor doesn't bring and syllabus, but instead gives them an assignment to find a missing girl named Polly. He sends out emails each week with new clues and details. The class must find her before the end of the six week term or she will be murdered!
The students are both intrigued and puzzled by what they are suppose to be doing. As they gather more information, they begin to question whether this girl might really be missing. Is the class assignment really teaching them logic and reasoning or are they trying to solve something more sinister? The story starts to take over the lives of some of the students as they find new clues that seem to mix the assignment with reality.
Will Lavender's debut book mixes academia and mystery to a heightened level of paranoia. The puzzles and twists and turns of the book flood your mind as you try and figure out what is real and what isn't. At times, it almost becomes overwhelming keeping everyone straight. I really wanted to love this book, but even at the climatic ending, I still felt a bit lost. The story line intrigued me, but there never was an `aha' moment for me, which I really wanted to have!
Take a chance, read the book yourself and see what you think.
Reviewed for Allisons Attic Blog
Rated by buyers -
I agree with most of the reviewers who are saying that the premise sounded very promising. I had actually checked out some reviews before reading the book and was on the fence whether to give it a go or not. It's not a horrible book but disappointing because it could have been potentially great. Some of the dialogue is sophomoric at best. The main students solving the "mystery" of Polly began to grate on my nerves. Certain plot twists were way too far fetched even for a work of fiction.
All in all it was entertaining enough for me to read the whole thing.
Rated by buyers 
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For roughly 2/3 of Will Lavender's 1st novel, "Obediance", I was mesmerized and could not turn the pages fast enough. The remaining 1/3 of the novel, however, is so utterly convoluted and disappointing it ruins the entire ride.
The premise of the book is a Logic and Reasoning Class at a small "Ivy" League College where the mysterious Professor abandons traditional lectures and instead poses clues to the students in each class about a "fictional" murder they must all solve before the 6-week compressed term ends. Of course, as the students begin to follow the clues they uncover what appears to be a real murder that possibly involves the Professor and College Dean, among others. The focus is on 3 students from this class and their collective & individual investigations.
The names given in class are all fictional and not resembling the "real" murder case. Towards the end of the book - both the real and fake names are mixed and matched so frequently any reader will have a difficult time knowing what is going on (without taking notes down along the way). The ending was, quite simply, very disappointing.
Here's hoping Will Lavender gives us a complete novel with his subsequent effort!
Rated by buyers -
I started reading this book a few weeks ago, but got freaked out so I put it down and then I picked it up again because it's due back to the library in a few days. I've always been a slow reader, even with those Harry Potter books that everyone manages to finish in an evening no matter what the length. Finishing this book only took a day and I only put it down because I got distracted by hunger.
If you're looking to read/purchase "Obedience" for yourself, I must tell you that after finishing it, I was glad it was just a library book...
*Possible Spoilers* Please read/reply if you could help my confusion:
I must say that the book was very exciting and I kept reading because I wanted to find out what would happen next, but...only because I was confused. I wanted to keep reading to see if my confusion would be put away by some good explanations. I'm not a very logical thinking person so I guess I was a little slow at catching some things, but some clues I read earlier did come back and were explained, but some took a long while and soon I was with the characters in wondering what was supposed to be real and what wasn't. I kept getting confused and mixing up the back stories of Polly and Deanna and then Elizabeth's history suddenly ended up being both of them. Those things finally got solved, but it was annoying when you think they figured it out, but they didn't.
The ending was not that surprising and the message of the human element was a good one that can be applied to a lot of other things other than the Milgram Experiments and the experiment of the novel. The Human Element is ofter forgotten, especially in issues like environmentalism among other things.
*Ending Spoilers Ahead*
Anyhow, I'm still confused, even after reading and rereading the ending. I tried googling answers about the ending, but only found all these bad/critical Amazon reviews. I'm still confused by the moments right before Brian did what he did. What was Williams mouthing to Brian while Brian was watching him and Mary? What did Elizabeth mean when she said to Brian that all this stuff started his freshman year? Was she just referring to the fact that that's when she started her study? I mean she just explained to Mary what everything was and she wouldn't know how much Brian heard. He comes barging in with a gun and she's just trying to tell him he's been a pawn in their game since he was a freshman? That's logically not the right thing to say to a mentally abused student who is armed and clearly feeling endangered.
Was there something more that had to personally do with Brian? Was she referring to his brother's death? At that point I was wondering if his "dead" actor brother was going to just appear and staged his death for the sake of this sick experiment. Gaaah I'm still trapped in the mind game of this book! Will someone please help me and tell me what that meant? I'm not sure what it means because the book never goes on to explain it! Did I miss something? Am I looking too far into it? Should I just accept that it's over?
***
Overall this book was quite an exciting adventure, but the confusion that remains afterward is disappointing. Still, the book has very good writing and it's clear that a lot had been researched to make the world believable, but a lot also had been missed as other reviews had said. I look forward to Will Lavender's subsequent book to see how much he improves his writing. The concept and ideas are terrific, it's just the delivery and loose ends that need some cleaning up.
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