by Cathryn_Conroy: Mr. Fox is dead. Mr. Fox was a bad (bad) man. But who killed him? Or was it an accident? Or possibly suicide?
This psychological thriller/murder mystery by Joyce Carol Oates, who was 87 years old when this book was published in 2025, had me reading at the edge of my seat. It is at once entrancing and unputdownable as much as it is appalling and repulsive.
Francis Harlan Fox is a man with a dirty little secret. When he gets a job teaching English to seventh and eighth graders at the exclusive, but somewhat isolated, Langhorne Academy in Weiland, New Jersey, he is grateful. Even if he is living in the middle of nowhere. Once again, his luck has held, and he has landed on his feet—wily as a fox indeed. You see, Mr. Fox is truly a gifted teacher; the children, especially the girls, adore him. They are in awe of him. And he is in awe of them. Mr. Fox is a sexual predator of prepubescent girls, preferably ages 12 and 13. He calls them his “Little Kittens.” And what he does to them is horrifying.
While Francis Fox has repeatedly been caught as a sexual predator at previous schools for which he has worked, his crafty attorney has always gotten him off the hook. Not only were there no legal repercussions, but also, the schools were required to pay him money to quietly leave. They also guaranteed to provide glowing recommendations for Mr. Fox, and while each of these exclusive private schools rested uneasily with the outcome, they knew their (oh-so-valuable) public reputation was still intact.
Now Mr. Fox is in Weiland, New Jersey. And (this isn’t a spoiler) two months later, he is dead. Now the story really begins. A story about evil and revenge.
Oates masterfully weaves this unrelenting thriller, not only switching points of view but also timelines—back and forth and sideways so we find out what each bold, bright, and vivid character is thinking and doing and feeling, especially Mr. Fox. Filled with suspense and ingeniously plotted, this haunting and dark literary novel is spellbinding right up to the explosive, shocking, and totally unexpected ending.
Hint: Readers who pay close attention will find two clues that lead to the ending, one of which is pretty big and the other of which is quite subtle. Oates is not the kind of writer to spring an out-of-left-field ending on a reader. Pay attention, and you can figure it out long before the last page. And even though I did figure it out, the ending was still astonishing.
