|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
City College of Minneapolis is an unusual university in that it is located in buildings scattered around the city of Minneapolis and doesn't have a typical college campus. The institution is geared towards adult students, most of whom are working or raising families. That presents its challenges to Jack Marston, who has recently become the Director of the Office of Student Affairs. In spite of the diverse demographics of the school, he's managed to turn the formerly moribund department into a vital support for the CCM students. When a student is murdered, the first person that the college president thinks to turn to is Jack. President Trammel is concerned that the crime will have a negative impact on the school's fund-raising efforts and assigns Jack to liaise with the police. As such, Jack isn't officially investigating the crime, but he does do a little digging on his own to try to understand the rationale for the murder. Within a short period of time, there are more murders. Jack begins to connect the dots; however, he is always careful to communicate with the police and not overstep his authority. There was a huge cast of characters in the book, and I only understood the role of each of them when I created a cast list. The stand-outs in addition to Jack were the academic VP, Anton Marshall, who is the prime suspect, and Lori Jacobs, Jack's love interest and strong supporter. I was surprised by the number of murders in the book; somehow, I had expected the academic setting would mean that death wouldn't be a frequent event. Carl Brookins did a nice job of sprinkling red herrings into the plot, but ultimately I found the motivations of the actual murderer to be less than compelling. It would have been a simple matter to turn Jack into a kind of private detective who merrily investigated the campus murders. Instead, Brookins maintained plausibility by frequently reinforcing the fact that Jack was not a detective, even if he did uncover the solution to the crime. I really appreciated how that was handled; I often have a problem with so-called amateur sleuths who turn into homicide detectives. BLOODY HALLS is the first book of a projected series. It will appeal to those who like mysteries in academic settings, and is unusual in that it is not overly cozy.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, January 2008
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
