Conor Cusack

Shock and Awe Conor Cusack

Publisher Marketing: Colin MacPherson is a disillusioned high school teacher living and working in the Black Rock section of Buffalo, New York. He is on the verge of quitting and pursuing a different profession. Colin's older brother Michael is a Rhodes Scholar, MIT scholarship recipient, and a very well-connected, high-profile Information Technology consultant. Michael pays Colin a visit in Buffalo and tries to persuade him not to quit. Michael asks Colin to consider re-igniting his students' interest in learning by pioneering state-of-the-art technology that Michael can access. Colin is skeptical and rejects the idea at first, until one of his students is randomly slain two days before Thanksgiving. After losing a student to violence, Colin accepts Michael's challenge to disrupt the public education system by covertly converting his classroom over the holiday recess into a multi-media dome-shaped learning "Hive." The brothers complete the conversion with inside assistance from the school's Director of Maintenance and experts from top software companies with whom Michael shares close ties. What results is an account of unwavering courage, daring persistence, and an ending that will undoubtedly surprise readers!