Sonderbooks Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

Sonderbooks Stand-out 2004
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***Murder Is Academic

A Cambridge Mystery

by Christine Poulson

Reviewed August 24, 2004.
Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin’s Press), New York, 2004.  First published in Great Britain in 2002.  240 pages.
Sonderbooks Stand-out 2004, #5, Mystery and Adventure

I first checked this out for my husband to read while he was on a trip to Cambridge.  He enjoyed the setting, and told me I would love the main character.  Indeed, the one solving the mystery in this story is a fellow book lover.  She has piles of books all over her house and easily finds excuses to visit bookstores, the same ones I visited when I did get to go to Cambridge.

This first novel is a classic British mystery set at Cambridge University.  When Dr. Cassandra James finds the body of the head of the English department in her pool, no one knows whether it was an accident or suicide or something worse.  Cassandra’s asked to fill in as department head, and problems with that job pile on top of personal challenges and a student ends up dead.

The setting and the book-lover main character made this mystery all the more fun.  I have to say that there’s a nice twist on the detective-in-danger-from-the-murderer motif at the end.

Copyright © 2005 Sondra Eklund.  All rights reserved.

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