Nineteen Minutes Author: Jodi Picoult

Publishers: Hodder & Stoughton

In a bizarre coincidence, Jodi Picoult’s story of a school killer came out on the very month of another American school massacre. Even the expression of Jodi’s shooter, “They started it” was echoed by the real life college shooter Cho Seung-Hui, "You decided to spill my blood".

In the beginning, Jodi’s style is a bit incoherent with the underlying tension she has tried to build up from the beginning. It is only when you get a grip of the way the story shuttles back and forth in time, you start enjoying it.

Heckled, treated terribly by mates, ignored by his father and disowned by his brother, the metamorphosis of Peter is nicely captured in the book. He longs for friendship, unable to understand why people don’t like him.

A mother and her daughter are central to the story-a pattern familiar to Picoult fans. The two are distanced from each other by work. Daughter Josie plays a pivotal role, being the girlfriend of the school sports star who loves to bully other students, her friendship often toggles with Peter- considered clumsiest of all students in the school.

The writer uses US colloquial language to set the correct ambiance of a high school. It gels well with the storyline, as does the set of characters, edging in harmony towards the doom day, when Peter rampages through the site of his torment, killing his classmates who once made his life miserable.