Emerald Aisle
A Mystery Set at the University of Notre Dame
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Heavyweight Notre Dame professor Roger Knight and his P.I. brother Philip investigate a baffling puzzle when some extremely rare literary documents go missing in the fifth installment of this smart academic mystery series.
Complicating matters for the brothers are the impending nuptials of some dear friends, Larry Morton and Nancy Beatty, which hit a snag. When Larry was an undergraduate at Notre Dame he made a prudent but overly optimistic reservation to marry his freshman sweetheart, Dolores Torre, in the popular campus rectory six years in the distant future. Their relationship didn't last, and now Larry wants to use the reservation to marry Nancy. Unfortunately, his old girlfriend Dolores has a similar plan.
When both Larry and Dolores try to claim the forgotten reservation on the appointed date for their very separate marriages, pandemonium ensues. Dolores's new fiance, Dudley, is a man with a troubling secret past that may come back to haunt all of them. When a woman winds up strangled to death, both weddings are suddenly on hold until everyone can figure out what's going on.
What is Dudley's connection with the missing documents, and how could such a white-collar, academic crime lead to a grisly murder? Between the two of them, Roger and Phil Knight can handle many tough questions--but this particular puzzle is bound to prove quite a challenge in this intelligent, witty mystery from one of the genre's masters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The author of the Father Dowling series (The Book of Kills, etc.) has fashioned a sleuthing duo brothers Roger and Philip Knight who mix the academic, the philosophical and the religious. And what better purview for the author's sharp and gentle wit than his own campus of Notre Dame? Intertwined plots follow the course of Larry Morton and Dolores Torre, who as undergraduates fell in love at Notre Dame and, rather impulsively, reserved a date far in advance for their eventual wedding at Sacred Heart. McInerny makes the improbable credible as these young lovers grow in separate directions only to meet years later over the rights to that reservation. Meanwhile, Philip and Roger are engaged to discretely discover and recover several of the rarest items stolen from Joseph Primero's extensive collection of the writings of Cardinal Newman a collection destined for Notre Dame. When the mysterious disappearance of the books is followed by an equally mysterious death, the futures of Larry and Dolores, as well as that of the despoiled collection, rest in the brothers' hands. Interesting characters and interesting questions about character fuel this entertaining puzzler as Roger, whose immense size is matched by his intelligence, and Phil, capable and energetic, combine forces to shed light on both problems. McInerny's proven track record of mysteries light on violence but freighted with humor and wisdom should guarantee an eager reception for this fifth book in the series.
