Trapping characters in a single location makes for a compelling story. And having everyone be strangers certainly helps rack up conflict and drama as well. Sure, it’s an overworked formula at this point, but the results are undeniable. Eric Weiner, a ghostwriter for Fear Street Sagas, gave the recipe a whirl in his 1994 book Deadly Detention. He was clearly inspired by one of the most seminal examples of these “bottle” tales, The Breakfast Club, but unlike John Hughes’ benchmark of teen movies, the characters in this story aren’t mired in expectations or concerned with social constructs. No, these young detainees are running from a more tangible threat — one hoping to keep them in school forever.

The book begins with the six main characters reporting to their disciplinary destination, classroom 301 at Harrison High School. For a few hours on this ill-fated afternoon, these unlucky students belong to Mr. Lance Crowley. Or as everyone calls him behind his back, The Corporal. Unlike the parents who admire his boot camp-style teaching methods, the student body is afraid of Crowley; from the jocks to the dweebs, every teen at Harrison fears the tough-as-nails biology teacher. As the inmates gather, they each dread the possibility that Crowley is indeed their proctor.

His contemporaries may have preferred less defined characters, as a way to help readers better identify with them. Eric Weiner, on the other hand, makes the effort to shape and mold these six detentionaires so they’re not so one-dimensional. At first it seems like the author is only relying on tropes; everyone plays into a specific and familiar role. Glen Davis is a jock, Jaclyn Peeters is a cheerleader, Jill Berman is a loser, Mike Morricone is a class clown, Owen Lasker is a brain, and lastly, Fran Weber is a nice girl. However, everyone becomes more distinguished as they band together in the face of trouble.

First up in this patchwork group is the couple on everyone’s mind; Glen and Jaclyn were sentenced to detention after getting caught with their pants down in a classroom. Jaclyn is cocky, mean as a snake, and totally vindictive. Her quips provide a lot of Deadly Detention’s humor, albeit it’s always at someone else’s expense. As to be expected, her wanton animosity is a sign of utter self-loathing. Meanwhile, boyfriend Glen the sensitive and miserable athlete, who says his neglectful “parents never know if [he’s] home or not,” finds himself less and less attracted to his venomous girlfriend over the course of the day. He soon steers his attention toward the friendlier Fran, which understandably rattles Jaclyn.

That’s right, kiddies. You’re all going to die. One by one.

Then there’s Jill, the victim of not only a potential killer but also an excess of fat jokes. Jill takes Jaclyn and Crowley’s barbs in jest, she calms herself with food and cigarettes, and she admits to being in therapy for anxiety attacks brought on by the pressure of getting a full scholarship to college. Still and all, everyone aside from the cantankerous cheerleader and nasty instructor, is nice to Jill. This includes Mike, a seemingly carefree wrestler with a reputation for gassing up the joint with more than his clownery; he unleashes the most heinous farts, apparently. As it turns out, though, his comedy act is a cover for all the physical abuse he endures at home. Everyone assumed his bruises were from wrestling. Of his father, Mike says “he’s got to take it out on somebody,” and the only bright side is he can never disappoint someone “who’s always disappointed.”

Bringing up the rear of this increasingly somber brigade of Harrison’s brightest are Owen and Fran. The former spends a lot of time bragging about his high marks and early acceptance to MIT, but the truth of the matter is, everyone here makes good grades. Harrison not only has a system in place where the students with the highest GPAs are rewarded, the annual Walton math contest offers prestige. And no matter how amiable she comes across, Fran is just as competitive as everyone else. Her goal of getting into a good college like Yale hangs in the balance, and that math award could help with admissions.

As to be expected, the teacher assigned to today’s detention is Mr. Crowley. The taskmaster orders the inmates to scrub classroom 301 free of all graffiti and gum, or else they can’t go home. As day turns into night, though, the students discover they’re locked inside the empty school and Crowley is nowhere to be found. That is, until they hear him over the intercom system, telling the six teens he’s going to kill them all… one by one. 

Glen was holding Jill’s bloody head.

Deadly Detention makes good on its promise of high-school horror as the characters desperately search for an escape from their unseen tormentor. Splitting up does them no favors, and the assailant immediately picks off the two weakest links. First goes Owen, whose corpse ends up in a basketball hoop, and then Jill is beheaded in the school cafeteria. With Crowley’s car gone from the parking lot, the group starts to suspect someone among them is actually the killer. 

Mike eventually fesses up to making the announcement; he imitated Crowley’s voice. Fingers naturally point to him as the killer, but he maintains his innocence. His name is only cleared when he winds up dead with a scalpel in his back. This leaves the remaining three students — Glen, Jaclyn and Fran — to reexamine their own theories. Has the killer been Crowley all this time, or were they right to suspect each other? Deadly Detention gets mightily suspenseful as the whodunit element comes out in full force and everyone sheds their loyalties.

Deadly Detention does a solid job of keeping the readers guessing up until the very end. Everyone has a motive, even if they are flimsy or preposterous. Who is actually revealed to be the culprit may come as a small surprise, although there were clues. Harrison’s academic competition, the strive to be number one, and the pressure of failure were all enough to send this one student into a murderous rage. And with Glen unceremoniously picked off and Crowley now dead and out of the picture, Jaclyn and Fran are the only ones left standing. 

It would have been too easy to have the mean girl be the overarching villain; Jaclyn is cruel and manipulative, yet she’s no murderer. There remains the story’s very own Molly Ringwald; the agreeable Fran who stood up for Jill and urged Mike to get help for his abuse. The popular and likable theater kid used her acting skills to fool everyone. Her desire to win the Walton math prize drove her to kill her immediate competition, all of whom she made sure got detention with her. And Mike’s intercom stunt? Merely a happy accident for Fran. So, the girl who said her lack of extracurriculars was keeping her from getting into a good college ultimately found an activity that suits her best.

Inside the large, dark school, five victims lay dead. One more was about to join the rest.

Deadly Detention ends on a dark note; everyone but Fran dies. After shooting Jaclyn in cold blood, Fran escapes under the notion she’s going to get away with her crimes, and Crowley would be blamed for the massacre. The cheerleader who listens to Motörhead on her Walkman with a built-in mic, however, had one last trick up her sleeve. Miss Peeters, while bleeding out from a gunshot wound, managed to record Fran’s entire confession. She didn’t survive to tell the tale, but presumably her killer neither gets off scot free, nor does she get into her dream school.

Eric Weiner delivered a full-on slasher story at a time when other young-adults writers were only teasing the format or were outright noncommittal. With its occasional gruesomeness, a decent sense of mystery, and a cast of well-described and complicated characters, Deadly Detention is a worthwhile read. Slasher movies didn’t come back into fashion until a few years after this book came out, but it’s clear YA was making up the shortfall, even if fans didn’t know it at the time.

There was a time when the young-adult section of bookstores was overflowing with horror and suspense. These books were easily identified by their flashy fonts and garish cover art. This notable subgenre of YA fiction thrived in the ’80s, peaked in the ’90s, and then finally came to an end in the early ’00s. YA horror of this kind is indeed a thing of the past, but the stories live on at Buried in a Book. This recurring column reflects on the nostalgic novels still haunting readers decades later.