When a review really “gets” your book

Authors have their share of good reviews and bad, but for this author it’s heart-warming when a reviewer really gets what I’ve tried to do with a book. That’s why I feel compelled to share a line from a review of Planted, posted to Amazon on July 17. The reader, Mr. Herman, begins by calling the book “charming,” and asserts, “At the end, I felt as sorry for one of the villains as I did for the man who was murdered….that takes a good writer!”

When I read the review, I was speechless, and a smile spread across my face. I try to bring compassion to my writing, not just for the victim but for many of the characters. Certainly for the victim’s loved ones, and  sometimes for a villain whose life has gone haywire. Thank you, Mr. Herman, for responding to to that facet of the story and for taking the time to say so!

And now, back to writing book two of The Penningtons Investigate . . .

Diehl and D’Avanzo Mix In Student Research (academic mysteries)

Colleges have come a long was from the old Lecture/Recitation model of education. Today’s undergraduate students learn valuable life lessons in the field through civil engagement, and they get hands-on real-life experience by participating in their professors’ research projects. As an author and avid reader, I’m enjoying the new crop of academic mysteries that show students gathering and analyzing data and engaging in other aspects of timely scholarly research.

Two authors are stand outs: Lesley A. Diehl and Charlene D’Avanzo.

Diehl’s character Laura Murphy is a psychology professor in upstate New York. In the 2016 mystery from Creekside Publishing, Failure is Fatal, Laura’s ongoing study in sexual harassment on campus is at the heart of the story. A student is murdered, and the description of the murder is one of the anonymous responses to the study’s current round of data gathering. This is not a grisly or grim tale, however, as Diehl’s humor and Laura’s ability to tick people off keep the reader laughing and eyerolling all the way to the end.

An environmental educator and researcher, D’Avanzo specializes in marine ecology. Her 2016 (Torrey House Publishing) academic mystery, Cold Blood Hot Sea, throws the reader into the contentious field of environmental research, including scientific fraud and sabotage. At the book’s heart is a smart resourceful warm-hearted woman scholar, Dr. Mara Tusconi, who teaches and does research at the Maine Oceanographic Institution, surrounded by eager students and ambitious colleagues. Every twist of this page turner reveals more about the cutting edge field of study, its methods, and the scholars in training who will carry the work forward.

Looking for a compelling read that educates you while it challenges and satisfies your inner sleuth? Pick up Failure is Fatal or Cold Blood Hot Sea and hang on tight.

 

Josephine Tey, Miss Pym Disposes (academic mystery)

Written the year I was born, Miss Pym Disposes is an academic cozy to be treasured. I curled up with the book each evening, savored the storytelling, and was drawn more and more into the extensive cast of vividly-drawn characters. I came to understand their individual responses to the injustices at Leys College. With Lucy Pym as my window on academic affairs, I soon wanted the beautiful Nut Tart to marry Richard, I wanted the hardworking Inneses to be proud of their difficult daughter, Mary, and I wanted Miss Pym to flee back to London rather than face her sad duty of telling on a murderer. I didn’t mind that the murder didn’t happen until nearly the end of the book, because I knew a murder was coming. Whose, I couldn’t guess. And the murderer I couldn’t guess. Like Miss Pym, I got it wrong. I identified with Lucy Pym’s increasing agony as an observer of injustice who suddenly holds the key piece of a deadly puzzle in her hand. Will she or won’t she tell?

Frame Work by Anne G. Faigen (academic mystery)

As I undertake a scene in Prague for book two, I have firmly in mind Anne Faigen’s portrayal in Frame Work of the city’s history and its compelling reminders of the Holocaust. Faigen brings the city alive with warmly interesting characters, notably an art history professor who explores the city with a keen eye and an awareness of its controversial past. I’m so grateful I read the book before visiting Prague last fall. I added scenes from the book as stops on my walking tours of the city and was richly rewarded!

Author’s Note

I focus on academic mysteries in my blog entries. These are not formal book reviews, simply my thoughts as an author and avid reader of traditional mysteries. Often, something about the way characters are drawn or the way settings are introduced motivates me to freshen my style, broaden my skills, or simply admire a master of the craft. If you have a favorite academic mystery, whether it’s recent or long ago, please share.

 

An Inspector Sloan Calleshire Mystery (academic mystery)

From the Golden Age of Mystery, Catherine Aird’s Parting Breath was a gentle deceiver for me. A classic cozy. I enjoyed getting to know the all-too-human Inspector Sloan and all the players at the University of Calleshire, where students are clever adventurers and faculty are so specialized they fall short of genuine conversation. I loved the English Professor who’d been at it long enough to be suspicious of the murderer from the start (because he didn’t act like what he professed to be) and who endured disappointment and deception by focusing on her own scholarly path. Red herrings everywhere! I think Catherine Aird must have enjoyed writing this whodunit, and I’d like to take that delight in deception, puzzlement, and storytelling into my current WIP.

Capacity for Murder (academic mystery)

Thoughts on Bernadette Pajer’s academic mystery, Capacity for Murder

My shaky command of electricity was not an obstacle to enjoying Capacity for Murder, the third Professor Bradshaw Mystery by Bernadette Pajer. While Bradshaw is an acclaimed expert in electricity at the start of the 1900s, Pajer gives ample information for the reader to understand how an electrotherapy device figures into a murder at a health resort on the coast of Washington State. There is nothing dry or erudite about this academic mystery. It is an evocative, fast-paced story of a highly-principled but flawed investigator and his unflagging hunt for a murderer without conscience. I was especially impressed with Pajer’s ability to show the various settings of the story through the sensitive perception of the professor. Also, Bradshaw’s tenderness with his 10-year-old child is a beautiful and effective counter to the cold-blooded murder of a beloved man that opens the book. I’m eager to read more of the Professor Bradshaw Mysteries.

Rich in Christian Values (academic mystery)

Thoughts on Sylvia Nash, The Book of Secrets

Academic Mystery, Christian book

So often I hear “page turner” or “can’t put it down” as hallmarks of a good mystery. The Book of Secrets, by Sylvia Nash, is a thoughtful Christian mystery whose interwoven themes of secrets, friendship, and forgiveness are careful developed through the interaction of a cohesive group of friends and those they are closest to. While the story has plenty of action and suspense, the book is best enjoyed by savoring and reflecting on a few chapters at a time. I don’t know many mysteries that have touched me so deeply or allowed me to know and love the victim and learn from the victim’s wisdom.

The book opens with Aunt Mae’s death, and the reader comes to know Aunt Mae through those who knew her and who seek justice for her murder. Six girls wrote their secrets in a book Aunt Mae kept in a private place, and one of those secrets led to the murders of three people on three successive Sundays. The six girlfriends, now grown women, disagree about revealing their secrets in order to solve the crime, and it’s through their emotional debate that Nash explores forgiving one another, forgiving ourselves, and trusting that those who love us can and will forgive us for our human failings.

The heroine, Millicent Anderson, a religion professor at Edmonds College, is a strong determined woman who drives the action to successful resolution. She is criticized by some of the characters as being perfect, as not having dark secrets, and not understanding why her friends insisted on protecting the devastating errors they made in the past. I felt distant from Millicent for those reasons, too, and I saw that as a weakness of the book. Nevertheless, this was a satisfying mystery, rich in Christian values. I strongly recommend it for a fireside read over several evenings, with time to reflect between sessions.

Prose that sings (academic mystery)

Carolyn Marie Wilkins’ academic mystery Melody for Murder introduced me to a world I’ve never seen, from the poverty of Chicago’s South Side to the glitz of charity galas in the African American community. Protagonist Bertie Bigelow is a young widow and a music professor at a South Side community college where she nurtures young talent and leads the choir. When one of her protogees embarrasses the college at a performance, Bertie’s job is on the line. Her effort to understand LaShawn Thomas’s behavior propels her into world of evil she’s never experienced. She’s forced to confront all her assumptions about the movers and shakers she thought she knew.

Wilkins’ plot is a dynamic puzzle that had me pointing to new suspects and discarding others with every scene shift. Even more skillful is her prose. She has a genius for sound and a pen that can bring music to life for her reader. Her ear for dialect and nuance flows easily from characters that spout Latin phrases to street talk. Bertie’s eye for fashion gives the reader welcome breaks from the violence and desperation she encounters, as striking African dresses, sumptuous furs, and power suits contrast with gang bandanas and shabby cardigans. In short, Wilkins’ characters spring to life in full color and voice as they make their moves against the Chicago setting. Melody for Murder is a great read!

 

Best academic mystery I’ve read this millennium

My quest to read a wide variety of academic mysteries led me to Tace Baker’s Bluffing is Murder. Protagonist Lauren Rousseau is a linguistics professor at Agawam College in the coastal town of Ashford, Massachusetts. Charles Heard’s murder on the bluffs above Holt Beach exposes a web of deceit that has authorities looking at innocent citizens as murder suspects. Their first suspect is Lauren who found the body on her customary run on the beach one summer day.

Two aspects of this carefully plotted well-written mystery stood out for me. One is the tight integration with the community of Ashford and neighboring towns that is often missing from campus mysteries. Lauren buys her insurance from the victim Charles Heard, dates a man who often assists the local police, takes karate lessons with schoolchildren, and frequents the village bakery. While Lauren brings her expertise with languages to bear on the case, the mystery is not confined to campus affairs and the scholarly community. This not only broadens Baker’s reader appeal but, I think, also heightens the impact of the murders (and there are several) for readers.

Another highlight of this mystery for me is the artistic way Baker integrates the coastal setting and its natural beauty. Although it has been fifteen years since I lived on Boston’s northshore, Baker brought the Ipswich area back to life for me with familiar sights, sounds, and smells. The author’s keen observation of detail is skillfully filtered through her character’s eyes and reported in scene-specific detail through Lauren’s usual activities—walking her little dog Wulu, running on the beach, clamming, biking the steep narrow village streets, exploring hidden passages in the magnificent mansion on the bluffs, and driving on twisty country roads. Place has a central role in the story.

Bluffing is Murder is the best academic mystery I’ve read this millennium, and I hope Tace Baker is planning more Lauren Rousseau mysteries.