Murder Is Academic: A Cambridge Mystery

by Christine Poulson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781466842328
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/15/2004
Series:	Cambridge Mysteries , #1
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	328 KB

About the Author

Christine Poulson was born and brought up in North Yorkshire, England. She is now a research fellow at the Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies at Sheffield University and chair of the William Morris Society. She has written widely on 19th-century art and literature, and her most recent work of non-fiction was a book on Arthurian legend in British art from 1840 to 1920. She lives with her family in a water mill in Derbyshire, England.

Editorial Reviews

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. Agent, Bob Tanner at International Scripts (U.K.). (May 7) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Even if you feel that your professor has the power of life and death over you, is that any reason to drown her while she's grading your work?Coming to collect the exams from her colleague Margaret Joplin, Professor Cassandra James finds the head of the English Department of St. Ethelreda's College, Cambridge, floating in her swimming pool along with an unfortunate number of exams. The paper conservators at the Fitzwilliam Museum manage to restore the waterlogged screeds, but Cassandra, when asked to replace Margaret, finds it much harder to restore her department to scholarly viability. Under pressure from the Head of the College to force her eccentric colleagues to publish, she's distracted by wondering exactly how Margaret perished. She'd been having an affair that might have threatened her marriage, and like Cassandra, she'd been increasing the pressure on her wayward English Department colleagues. For instance, Cassandra's mentor and colleague, Merfyn, has made a career out of being just about to publish a book. Under Margaret's encouragement, he's actually been making progress-until he attends a seance in which the spirit of Conan Doyle tells him to tear it up. And then a plagiarizing student is killed while recovering from a suspicious fall. Has someone taken academic integrity a little too seriously?Poulson's debut offers charming proof of Raymond Chandler's remark about the viciousness with which academics pursue their careers.

Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating mystery..The sense of place was very strong...This is [Poulson's] debut book, and I just hope that the next one is not too long coming."

Mystery Women

"An intriguing read...Poulson certainly keeps the reader guessing...There is a lot to enjoy in this romp through the Cambridge commons. This is Poulson's first novel, and she creates a strong sense of place with a narrative style that is both energetic and engaging."

Sherlock Magazine

"Cambridge academic Christine Poulson's first crime novel is a triumph of suspense and intrigue. A labyrinthine plot is unravelled as intriguingly as a literary puzzle."

Bodies in the Bookshop Magazine