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Death by Suspenders*
mho Murdered the Professor?
On the first day back for fall term, professor Olivia and her colleagues are stunned to learn that one of their number has been found dead. While details aren’t forthcoming for a while, the fact that the police have an investigation leads them to think that foul play was involved. Olivia can’t stop her curiosity; while David wasn’t well-liked, who would murder him? Soon, Olivia starts her own investigation with the begrudging help of her possible new romantic interest, Don, who is in charge of campus security.
Who murdered the professor? A colleague or student? Someone from his personal life? Will Olivia help get to the bottom of it, or will she just hinder the investigation? Will she and Don continue their flirtation?
I enjoy cozy mysteries, and I love the university setting of this particular novel. Colleges are fishbowls, each their own unique microcosm, and so are the perfect fertile ground for mystery and intrigue. I enjoyed Olivia’s interactions with her best girlfriend and Don. The plot had some good twists and turns, and whom the eventual murderer turned out to be was a surprise. The book is very short and can be read in less than a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, the book was marred with a variety of errors. The author misspelled a character’s name twice. There were many issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage, with the most problematic being commas. They were missing in a variety of places: at the end of long introductory phrases, before the coordinating conjunction in a sentence composed of two independent clauses, and in other places—like before “not”—that actually hindered the proper reading of the sentence.
If you can overlook these sometimes confusing errors, you might enjoy the storyline of the novel and the new characters introduced in this series.
