Murder at the Margin: A Henry Spearman Mystery

by Marshall Jevons

Overview

Professor and amateur sleuth Henry Spearman uses economics to try to solve a murder while on a Caribbean vacation

Cinnamon Bay seems like the ideal Caribbean getaway. But for Harvard economist and amateur detective Henry Spearman it offers an unexpected and decidedly different diversion: murder. With the police at a loss, Spearman investigates on his own, following a rather different set of laws—those of economics. Theorizing and hypothesizing, Spearman sets himself on the killer’s trail as it winds from the perfect beaches and manicured lawns of a resort to the bustling old port of Charlotte Amalie to the perilous hiking trails of a dense forest. Can Spearman crack the case using economics—and before it’s too late?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691259345
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/14/2024
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marshall Jevons is the pen name of Kenneth G. Elzinga, the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, and William Breit (1933–2011). Together, they wrote two other Henry Spearman mysteries, The Fatal Equilibrium and A Deadly Indifference (Princeton). Elzinga, as Marshall Jevons, is also the author of another Henry Spearman book, The Mystery of the Invisible Hand (Princeton).

Table of Contents

• Frontmatter, pg. i
• FOREWORD. Murder at the Margin, pg. vii
• 1, pg. 1
• 2, pg. 11
• 3, pg. 19
• 4, pg. 26
• 5, pg. 36
• 6, pg. 41
• 7, pg. 49
• 8, pg. 58
• 9, pg. 76
• 10, pg. 84
• 11, pg. 95
• 12, pg. 111
• 13, pg. 139
• 14, pg. 151
• 15, pg. 165
• 16, pg. 174
• 17, pg. 185
• AFTERWORD, pg. 199

What People are Saying About This

Milton Friedman

I thought the economic argument extremely ingenious and the idea of using economic analysis as a way to solve the mystery most original.

Paul Samuelson

At last a new kind of mastermind—a rational 'homoeconomics' and libertarian. If Henry Spearman had not existed, God would have had to invent him. Marshall Jevons did, to his readers' benefit.

From the Publisher

"I thought the economic argument extremely ingenious and the idea of using economic analysis as a way to solve the mystery most original."—Milton Friedman

"At last a new kind of mastermind—a rational 'homoeconomics' and libertarian. If Henry Spearman had not existed, God would have had to invent him. Marshall Jevons did, to his readers' benefit."—Paul Samuelson

Editorial Reviews

"If there is a more painless way to learn economic principles, scientists must have recently discovered how to implant them in ice cream."—-John R. Haring, Jr., Wall Street Journal

"This is a tight little mystery that should hold the interest of any student who enjoys detective stories. At the same time, it contains some basic economic lessons, presented in a way that the first-year student will have no difficulty understanding. . . . Its style is crisp and entertaining, and its cast of characters will delight any mystery lover. . . . What gives Murder at the Margin its sparkle are the shrewd observations about academic life and the authors' ability to transform statements of economic law into deft character analysis."—-Sarah Gallagher and George Dawson, Journal of Economic Education

From the Publisher

This is a tight little mystery that should hold the interest of any student who enjoys detective stories. At the same time, it contains some basic economic lessons, presented in a way that the first-year student will have no difficulty understanding. . . . Its style is crisp and entertaining, and its cast of characters will delight any mystery lover. . . . What gives Murder at the Margin its sparkle are the shrewd observations about academic life and the authors' ability to transform statements of economic law into deft character analysis.

Journal of Economic Education - Sarah Gallagher and George Dawson

Writing pseudonymously, [William Breit and Kenneth Elzinga] have created Henry Spearman, a Harvard economist (actually a "Chicago" economist affiliated with Harvard), who utilizes the economic way of thinking literally to figure out "whodunit." If there is a more painless way to learn economic principles, scientists must have recently discovered how to implant them in ice cream.

Wall Street Journal - John R. Haring

This is a tight little mystery that should hold the interest of any student who enjoys detective stories. At the same time, it contains some basic economic lessons, presented in a way that the first-year student will have no difficulty understanding. . . . Its style is crisp and entertaining, and its cast of characters will delight any mystery lover. . . . What gives Murder at the Margin its sparkle are the shrewd observations about academic life and the authors' ability to transform statements of economic law into deft character analysis.
— Sarah Gallagher and George Dawson

Journal of Economic Education

Writing pseudonymously, [William Breit and Kenneth Elzinga] have created Henry Spearman, a Harvard economist (actually a "Chicago" economist affiliated with Harvard), who utilizes the economic way of thinking literally to figure out "whodunit." If there is a more painless way to learn economic principles, scientists must have recently discovered how to implant them in ice cream.
— John R. Haring, Jr.

Wall Street Journal