Murder Is Academic
A Cambridge Mystery
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
All is not well at Cambridge University's St. Ethelreda's College. The head of the English Department is dead, and Professor Cassandra James is appointed the task of running the department. Faced with the choice of whipping her underperforming colleagues into shape or losing the much-needed funding for the program, Cassandra resigns herself to the challenge. However, when she stumbles upon the former head's private papers and realizes that the death was no accident, Cassandra is forced to use her academic expertise of solving obscure literary puzzles for a very different purpose: tracking down a killer.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While this debut novel may not garner top honors, British author Poulson gets better than a passing grade for originality and for her likable book-loving professor/administrator/sleuth, Cassandra James. When her friend and colleague Margaret Joplin dies of an apparent poolside accident, James becomes the acting head of the English department of Cambridge's (fictional) St. Etheldreda's College, as well as the deceased's literary executor. An inspection of Joplin's private papers soon leads James to suspect that foul play was involved in her death. Though the students never become more than a rather formless aggregate, the faculty members and administrators are limned with a clarity that reveals their foibles, petty weaknesses and hidden strengths. Plenty of secrets reside behind the storied college walls of St. Etheldreda's, and Cassandra's safety and the future of her department depend on her deciphering which are lethal and which innocent. Poulson adroitly shifts the focus of suspicion among several suspects and builds suspense to a high pitch before delivering a most satisfying conclusion.
