Murder at the B-School
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Read the "keep-’em-guessing plot" as a university professor finds himself being framed for the death of a student--and only he can sort out the truth (Boston Sunday Globe).
When the dean of the department summons him to a hastily called and unscheduled meeting, the young assistant professor Wim Vermeer fears that his career has come to an abrupt end. But instead of terminating his contract, the dean hands him a sensitive assignment. The previous night, Eric McInnes, a handsome and wealthy student, drowned. While his death appears to be an accident, his family has some questions—and so do the police. The dean asks Vermeer to assist the family and work closely with the police, keeping a close eye on the school’s interests all the while. But it isn’t long before Vermeer realizes he’s been set up as the fall guy for a very nasty coverup.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Some fine description helps offset plot weaknesses in this competent first mystery from former Harvard Business School administrator and financial writer Cruikshank (The Greenspan Effect). When Eric MacInnes, a handsome, rich student at the business school, turns up dead in a whirlpool bath in a campus building, Dean Jim Bishop asks Wim Vermeer, a low-level finance professor headed nowhere, to keep the MacInnes family informed about the investigation. That the dean should select the rather lackluster Vermeer for such a sensitive task isn't particularly plausible. Nevertheless, Vermeer goes to the powerful MacInnes family, whose members are predictably hostile when he tries to placate them. Vermeer bumps into Capt. Barbara Brouillard, the Boston police detective assigned to the case, and they agree to work together, an arrangement that again feels forced. Before they've gotten too far, Eric's purported girlfriend, Jeannette Bartlett, jumps off a bridge and another murder follows. The relationship between Vermeer and Brouillard is feasible up to a point, but the leap it later makes leaves the reader behind. The entertaining picture of the world of academic finance and university politics gives the story a bit of an edge.