Quaker Witness

Elizabeth Elliot Mystery #2

by Irene Allen

When an eminent Harvard paleontologist is murdered in his lab, Elizabeth Elliot abandons her nonviolent existence to help the prime suspect in the murder, a beautiful graduate student and friend who once had filed sexual harassment charges against the late professor. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Religion, Cozy Mystery

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 1993

About the author

Irene Allen is the pen-name of Dr E Kirsten Peters, former faculty member in Washington State University's Department of Geology. She is a native of rural Washington State who graduated with a degree in geology from Princeton University in 1984. She earned her doctorate from the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at Harvard University in 1990. She has also done published research in the late-Pleistocene outburst floods of eastern Washington State. Since 1995 she has taught undergraduate-level geology and interdisciplinary science classes at Washington State University in her hometown of Pullman, Washington. She became an assistant professor in the College of Sciences at WSU. She has written two non-traditional geology textbooks and helped revise Thomson's Essentials of Geology for its current edition.

Under her pen-name, Irene Allen, she is the author of four murder mysteries. She herself is a practising Quaker and regularly attended the Cambridge meetinghouse.

Reviews

[KA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather sweet, Quaker-inflected cozy.

[Bev · Rating 2 out of 5]

Janet Stevens is a graduate student in the Harvard Paleontology Department. She specifically asked to work with Dr. Paul Chadwick because he was the leading researcher in her field. But she didn't know his reputation with female students--no female student had finished her degree under his advisement. They couldn't take his harassment. When Janet suffers the same issues, she is brave enough to file a complaint with the dean of students. But her troubles don't end there. She is ostracized by faculty and fellow students alike and labeled a "trouble maker." And then Dr. Chadwick is found dead in his lab and what was made to look like an accident with a dangerous gas is determined to be murder.

Janet is the first on the police's suspect list, but she isn't the only person in the department to have had problems with Chadwick. There are male students whose work has been brought into question by the difficult professor and one of his fellow faculty members was facing issues with their tenure case. Janet, who grew up in a Quaker School, seeks refuge and comfort at the local Meeting House where she becomes friends with Elizabeth Elliot. Elizabeth is certain that Janet is innocent and she takes up an amateur investigation to get to the bottom of the mystery at Harvard. In addition to sexual harassment, fraud and blackmail are lurking in the hallowed halls--but which provided the motive for Chadwick's death?

This is an okay academic mystery. The motive is a fairly likely one in the halls of academe and the plotting is adequate. I must say, however, that I found none of the characters to be particularly compelling. I definitely sympathize with Janet and the other students who have had to endure sexual harassment from the thoroughly nasty Dr. Paul Chadwick. But even my sympathy for the characters' situation didn't provide enough investment in the story. I don't mind that Chadwick has been eliminated (it's hard to feel sorry for such a man) and I don't particularly care who did it. Elizabeth isn't a terribly interesting sleuth, either. She seems to me to be rather colorless and to just drift through her investigation.

First posted on my blog Quaker Witness.

[Eden · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021 bk 315. Elizabeth Elliott is involved in another mystery involving an attendee of her Quaker meeting house. When a young Harvard grad student faces sexual harassment/abuse and then murder charges, Elizabeth steps up to serve as a comfort and quiet investigator into what is rotten in the paleontology department at the eminent university. Written shortly after the Clarence Thomas / Anita Hill investigation, real life questions are posed. As in real life, not all questions are answered, but thoughtful questions are asked and some of the corruption is rooted out in the end.

[Sally O'wheel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second of the Elizabeth Elliot mysteries. The Quaker Clerk of a certain age is put in the position of having to solve a murder mystery at Harvard. I like the quiet methodical way she went about it and the details of the place - Cambridge near Boston. The only thing that jarred was the way she felt she had to apologise for taking in the released prisoner and for drawing the line in the sand with him. She followed her leading and I don't think she had anything to apologise for. IT didn't work out as well as she had hoped but one should always follow one's heart. Very timely book about harassment of women.

[Scilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Elliot is the Clerk of the Cambridge, MA Quaker Meeting. She is an older woman who has lost her husband. She finds Janet Stevens, a young woman, crying in the Meeting House, and talks with her with great empathy. Janet is the only woman doing graduate work in Harvard's Paleontology department, and her advisor, the eminent Professor Chadwick has been sexually harrassing her since she arrived. She finally decided she should put in a complaint to the deans.

However, there is a lot going on in the Paleontology department. The next day Professor Chadwick is found dead in the lab, and Janet is the police detective's prime suspect. Elizabeth is sure that Janet was not a killer, so she has to dig up more about what's going on. Luckily, the department secretary is a member of the Quaker Meeting, and she is very willing to help Elizabeth and Janet find out more about the other members. As they did deeper, they realize what happened and have a revealing meeting of the department.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this second book. It was published in 1993 (29 years ago, now), and it shows. Much of this plot revolves around sexual harassment, and it reads like it’s from another era… which it was. Having lived through the early 90s, it was both disturbing and “familiar” to remember that era’s approach toward harassment issues.

I enjoy this series because it’s so unusual and so “Quaker.” To me, this 66-year old, arthritic Quaker widow is a fascinating protagonist, but I admit that I’m amazed that four of these books saw the light of day. But luckily for me, they did! For instance, I really appreciated the ending section where the protagonist wrestles profoundly with the role she has played in solving the mystery and regretting the ways in which she did not follow her conscience.

Some aspects of the Quaker slant in the book feel a bit extreme. (But I’m not Quaker and the author is, so…)

My favorite quote:
“She had done a great deal and regretted most of it.” p254

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Irene Allen is a pen name for Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a geologist, college professor and Quaker. She has also contributed to textbooks, books on geology for lay people, and written essays under the name "Rock Doc".

Quaker Witness is nice little cozy story without all the usual recipes. It features an unusual protagonist in Elizabeth Elliot, a Quaker woman in her 60's, who moves slowly and deliberately seeking the truth. The story involves Elizabeth befriending a young college student who is facing severe sexual harassment from her professor and advisor. The professor gets murdered, and our college student is the prime suspect!

I enjoyed the story as I did book number four in the series. This is a slow mover and works well with a cup of tea on a lazy afternoon. If you are not in search of a rush, this is well worth a read!

[Wiebke Kuhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok mystery, for my taste a bit too focused on religion though it helped me gain some insight into Quaker thinking. The focus on sexual harassment from different perspectives makes this book valuable, esp in its setting at Harvard, no less. And quite the way to wipe out an entire department...

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read; it was OK, but not a good as I remember Quaker Silence to be. I won't be reading the others in the series.

[Kevin Brubaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent mystery with interesting characters. I was just a bit disappointed that the protagonist's mystery solving skills seemed to have so little to do with her faith.

[Sherrill Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as Quaker Silence, but still very good.

Janet Stevens is a PhD student at Harvard, studying paleontology. She is sexually harassed by her advisor, Paul Chadwick.

Enter Elizabeth Elliot, detective and Friend.

Some of the explanations of how he died left me cross-eyed . . . I didn't find the religious blurbs at the beginning of the chapters as comforting . . . and I didn't like the ways Elizabeth ignored the Quaker "rules' when it suited her-- the author could have found another way. Having said that, it was a very good book, that moved along in an orderly fashion. The characters were realistic; I feel as if I knew Forrest, I felt an uplift for Joel, and I felt bad for John. And Janet, well, I DO hope that systems have been put into place at Harvard that will cause anyone in Janet's position to not have to go through what she went through.

[Beth Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sexual harrassment, a lesson in Quaker culture and beliefs, romance, pride, forgiveness, ethics in higher education, general decency to human beings and a bunch of other stuff. This book had a lot more to it then I suspected.

I have to say I liked it. A little suspense, but nothing too creepy.

It also surprised me with some swear words. It is hard to see that coming when you are reading a book about a religious old woman and each chapter starts out with a scripture from the prophet Isiah! Borrow my copy if you want to read it....I marked out the swear words and replaced them with better ones. IMNSHO, of course!

[Emily Cullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young women comes to Meetinghouse Clerk Elizabeth Elliot for help after she is sexually harassed by her academic advisor. When the advisor is found dead the girl finds herself the number one suspect. Believing in her innocence, Elizabeth must find out who really killed the advisor. Author Irene Allen wrote so few of these "Elizabeth Elliot" cozy mystery series but they are real gems. Especially if you, like me find the Quaker life fascinating.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sleuth of this mystery is a widow in her sixties, clerk of Cambridge Friends Meeting. It is very good at portraying a Quaker way of life and of seeing the world. I really liked the ending especially. Sarah Dowell owns this book if you would like to read it.

[Jenny O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one, too, and will keep looking for the rest of the series. Irene Allen has a great way of teaching you about another culture while you skip along with the mystery. WEll worth a read, easy and enjoyable.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harvard grad student wants to press a sexual harrassment complaint against her advisor, but someone kills his instead.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A low-key mystery set at Harvard with a Quaker clerk of meeting as the mystery-solver.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable mystery. It takes place at a Harvard Univ. science building, and I was glad to be able to follow the story in spite of the scientific nature of the mystery.

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

As good as the first. A bit moodier, very involving.

[Vickie Aldrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Quaker I enjoyed this book. I also liked that it was not extremely violent and portrayed women's struggles in academia at the end of the 20th century.

[John Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a little over the top in its portrayal of Quakers. As a scientist, I primarily enjoyed the portrayal of scientific misconduct.

[Stephen Hayes]

In addition to books about Quaker beliefs and practices, there are also works of fiction by Quaker authors, including whodunits like this one. It is one of a series of four, described by one reviewer as a Quaker Miss Marple.