A Little Learning Is A Murderous Thing

by Lou Allin

Life at Copper University in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has been good for Professor of Victorian literature Maddie Temple, but the school year is about to get off to a deadly start. Maddie's first day of school is marred by the death of a student who fell from the library's upper floors. First on the scene, she discovers that the student, Cheryl Crawford, was an English major. Meanwhile, Flo Andrews, the ambitious English Coordinator, makes the rest of the department's life hell with petty demands. The university has other problems as the elderly Chairman, Malcolm Driscoll, is incensed at the huge amounts of money channeled into SWINC, the new complex for the handicapped, when the rest of the university is pinching pennies. When Malcolm fails to arrive at school one morning, Maddie finds him at home in bed, blind and paralyzed. Although she summons help, he dies the next morning. Flo is arrested, having left prints on a wine glass at Malcolm's the night before. Traces of hemlock were found in his blood, and with her lust for his job, she seems a likely suspect. Maddie takes over the chairmanship temporarily, but when it is learned that Malcolm has left his fortune to SWINC, suspicions begin to rise. Did the managers of the center, furious about his lobbying, have a role in his murder? Is Flo involved as well? And what's with Grace Lwasa, Cheryl's former advisor, and the mysterious phone calls she keeps getting? Maddie turns amateur detective to figure out who is behind the strange happenings at Copper University, and uncover a killer - before she learns just how murderous a little learning can be. Lou Allin is the author of the Belle Palmer amateur sleuth series set in Northern Ontario in Sudbury, the Nickel Capital. She did her doctoral dissertation on Tamburlaine and currently teaches criminal justice students at Cambrian College. With her GSD, Nikon, and her mini-poodle, Friday, she roams the bush searching for plots.

Genres: Mystery

291 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2005

About the author

Lou sings two anthems, born in Toronto, Canada, but raised in Ohio. Her father followed the film business to Cleveland in 1948. His profession explains her passion for classic films and debt to Ted Turner.

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like academic mysteries and books set in and around a college campus. This one is both. It starts with a young senior dying by falling (or was she pushed) out a fourth floor window of the library. It continues with another death, search for family and a fear of old enemies catching up with someone who thought they were safe. There are a serious amount of plot lines running through this story and it takes some concentration to keep everything straight but the story is well told and the "feel" of academia is well written. That and winter in Michigan's "UP" chilling.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maddie Temple is an English professor in a college in Michigan's UP. Budget woes, the coming winter, her father's health, a new puppy, and a mysterious death all create various worries/angst. Maddie appears at times not to have control over what she does - forgetful, inarticulate,and so on. I found it mildly annoying at times and when she nearly proved herself too stupid to live, I was tempted to stop there, except that I had 10 pages to go.

[Leslie Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5--not a huge Wow but fun academic setting and familiar characters in it.

[Jan]

Just too slow starting...