The Teacher’s Pet by Hedley Thomas is a comprehensive examination of the events leading to the conviction of Chris Dawson for the 1982 murder of his wife Lynette (Dawson) Simms, forty years after she disappeared, expanding on The Australian’s Walkley award-winning journalist’s hit 2018 true crime podcast of the same name.

Teenage sweethearts, Lyn and Chris married in 1970, by January 1982 they were living in Sydney’s Northern Beaches raising their two young children. According to those who knew the couple, Lyn was a dedicated nurse, a devoted mother and a loving wife. Chris, who had retired from the star rugby league career he shared with his twin brother Paul, was a well-liked high school physical education teacher. When Lyn vanished in early January Chris, who failed to report her missing for six weeks, claimed she had simply left, intimating she had joined a cult. Investigators seemed to accept Chris at his word, despite a number of red flags, chief among them his intimate relationship with the family’s live-in sixteen year old babysitter, a student of Chris’s, whom he married two years later.

Drawing from newspaper accounts, police and court records, supplemented by extensive interviews of family, friends, and others connected to the case, Thomas’s 16-part podcast captured the attention of the public, and the police. If you are familiar with the popular series, little of the sensational circumstances of the crime revealed in The Teacher’s Pet will be a surprise, but Thomas reveals additional background and details, expands on the process and findings of his investigation which began in 2001, much of which was not included in the podcast, and shares the personal challenges his pursuit of the case caused.

At 500+ pages A Teacher’s Pet is not a quick read but the narrative is engaging, if a touch repetitive at times. It’s supplemented with photographs, a convenient timeline, and a resource list, as well as an epilogue covering the trial of Dawson contributed by a colleague as Hedley, who was subpoenaed to give evidence, could not attend the hearing.

Hedley deserves credit for his contribution to getting justice for Lynette and her family. A must read for fans of the podcast, and the true crime genre, A Teacher’s Pet is an absorbing piece of investigative journalism. ( )