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Murder at the B-School
Conducting a politically sensitive investigation involving the drowning death of a very wealthy student and the family's questions about campus safety and supervision, assistant professor Wim Vermeer discovers that he has been set up to take the fall in order to protect the university's reputation and that a faculty member is also hiding shady information.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
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April 29, 2008curlshank,jeffery
July 16, 2019
"The kid was floating facedown in the whirlpool, naked, suspended at forty-five degrees in a limp, looming bird-of-prey pose. The whirlpool's circle of underwater seats had caught his toes."
As a college professor I like to read detective or mystery fiction with university-themed plots. Alas, it is very hard to find good novels in this genre. The beginning of Jeffrey Cruikshank's Murder at the B-School (2004) promises a lot: indeed the first chapters kept me glued to the book. But soon the plot lost its edge and already by page 55 I began turning the pages faster and faster wishing the book to end as soon as possible.
The dead kid floating in the whirlpool is Eric MacInnes, a third-year student at the Harvard Business School, heir of a very rich family. Captain Barbara Brouillard, also known as "Ms. Biz" for her no-nonsense, competent handling of cases, leads the investigation. The main character in the novel is Dr. Wim Vermeer, a fourth-year faculty, as yet untenured, in the business school. In the disgustingly cliché literary trick, Barbara and Wim conduct parallel investigations. This way, the author attempts to have both a police procedural and a novel describing tribulations of a young faculty at a prestigious university. Naturally, this does not work.
The struggles of an untenured assistant professor are portrayed with a degree of accuracy. No wonder: the author is a real-life professor in the Harvard Business School, and a distinguished author of books in his field of research. He knows the university environment inside out and he writes very well. Unfortunately - and that's the problem with 90% of all mystery books - while the author has a great idea for the setup of the novel the denouement falls way short of this reader's hopes. The novel has a particularly lame ending - I almost cursed out loud when reading the last fifty pages or so. Implausible and ridiculous are the tamest words that come to my mind considering that Dr. Cruikshank is a famous academician.
And now the worst: there are several totally incongruous passages in the novel that seemed like copied from some other book or advertising brochure. Just consider this:
To sum up: good, interesting bits about a young professor's ordeal at a famous university. As a mystery - almost complete failure, except for the beginning.
Two stars.
As a college professor I like to read detective or mystery fiction with university-themed plots. Alas, it is very hard to find good novels in this genre. The beginning of Jeffrey Cruikshank's Murder at the B-School (2004) promises a lot: indeed the first chapters kept me glued to the book. But soon the plot lost its edge and already by page 55 I began turning the pages faster and faster wishing the book to end as soon as possible.
The dead kid floating in the whirlpool is Eric MacInnes, a third-year student at the Harvard Business School, heir of a very rich family. Captain Barbara Brouillard, also known as "Ms. Biz" for her no-nonsense, competent handling of cases, leads the investigation. The main character in the novel is Dr. Wim Vermeer, a fourth-year faculty, as yet untenured, in the business school. In the disgustingly cliché literary trick, Barbara and Wim conduct parallel investigations. This way, the author attempts to have both a police procedural and a novel describing tribulations of a young faculty at a prestigious university. Naturally, this does not work.
The struggles of an untenured assistant professor are portrayed with a degree of accuracy. No wonder: the author is a real-life professor in the Harvard Business School, and a distinguished author of books in his field of research. He knows the university environment inside out and he writes very well. Unfortunately - and that's the problem with 90% of all mystery books - while the author has a great idea for the setup of the novel the denouement falls way short of this reader's hopes. The novel has a particularly lame ending - I almost cursed out loud when reading the last fifty pages or so. Implausible and ridiculous are the tamest words that come to my mind considering that Dr. Cruikshank is a famous academician.
And now the worst: there are several totally incongruous passages in the novel that seemed like copied from some other book or advertising brochure. Just consider this:
"The Acura NSX, real green, with two seats and an excess of swooping body angles [...] there was the front seat, which urged you into a semirecumbent position. And once ignited, the car made two noises at once: a throb and a whine. When you stepped on the gas, the throb got bigger and the whine got higher. And because the engine was right behind you, almost square in the middle of the car, it seemed to be taunting you, behind your back. Egging you on."And what about the passage about flying in old planes? Or the very long and touristy passages about visiting Puerto Rico? What are all these pages doing in this novel? And what is the relevance of the fact that Wim a descendant of the phenomenal 17th-century Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer? Dr. Cruikshank should know that an unusual, surprising literary component should eventually play some role in the plot.
To sum up: good, interesting bits about a young professor's ordeal at a famous university. As a mystery - almost complete failure, except for the beginning.
Two stars.
September 11, 2018
Interestingly, I started off thinking “oh no! This guy is a finance guru and this book’s going to be full of people babble-speaking about that.” But it isn’t. It’s a really well constructed mystery (although I think I did suspect whodunnit about halfway through) with interesting descriptions and characters, and a different twist at the end, not what I was expecting. I hope he writes another with these same two protagonists. I’d read it.
June 25, 2019
Whodunit. Protagonist figures out that he is being framed and with the inadvertent help of lady detective, ends up fingering the evil mastermind. Harvard Business School is tolerably used as background for Brahmin family, supercilious professors, remote administrators, finance schemes... entertaining.
May 15, 2017
Pretty good book worth the read.
June 17, 2017
Solidly enjoyable
August 28, 2019
Spotted the killer again but still enjoyed the chase.
July 1, 2021
I loved this book….I was hoping there were more with these character….but I guess not
July 29, 2021
Another good summer read........murder mystery.
January 29, 2022
A pretty good story.
October 3, 2022
It was more interesting than I thought it would be, but the plot seemed a bit far fetched. I did enjoy the two protagonists, and the trip to Puerto Rico really made the story more exciting.
July 12, 2023
solid mystery, but I never really got excited or put on the edge of my seat. good read though, and I always find big money schemes interesting
February 29, 2024
I couldn’t finish this book. The characters were not engaging.
July 18, 2013
I love mysteries with academic settings, and I love anything at all with a Boston setting. So this book promised a double bonus for me. I wasn't disappointed!
Professor Wim Vermeer teaches first-year finance at the Harvard Business School. He knows he's not dynamic enough for tenure and has been attempting to find a position elsewhere. When handsome young student Eric MacInnes drowns in a hot tub there, Vermeer's attention is moved from job-hunting to being recruited to placate the powerful MacInnes family...and then saving his own skin.
I was hooked from the start. The writing contains the kind of lush detail that makes the characters come alive, and the mystery made the book un-put-downable for me. The closer I came to the end, the more my fingers itched to skip ahead to those last pages, I was so dying to see what happened! And then once it ended, I was sorry it was all over.
A great read. I highly recommend it!
Professor Wim Vermeer teaches first-year finance at the Harvard Business School. He knows he's not dynamic enough for tenure and has been attempting to find a position elsewhere. When handsome young student Eric MacInnes drowns in a hot tub there, Vermeer's attention is moved from job-hunting to being recruited to placate the powerful MacInnes family...and then saving his own skin.
I was hooked from the start. The writing contains the kind of lush detail that makes the characters come alive, and the mystery made the book un-put-downable for me. The closer I came to the end, the more my fingers itched to skip ahead to those last pages, I was so dying to see what happened! And then once it ended, I was sorry it was all over.
A great read. I highly recommend it!
January 7, 2015
Though I've never read a Cozy mystery, this book seems like one. The chief perpetrator is dismissed out of hand early in the investigation with little if any justification. Then the murderer is found out in the last 10 pages and there was no early warning about him at all. All the characters are nice to each other too. The story is pretty well written until the ending. The only disagreement with the ending is it wrapped up all too easily with no real warning. Three stars is a tepid recommendation, as the book is well written, but not such a good ending.
January 30, 2011
Liked how he was trying to help the MacInnes family, only to find out everyone thought they were lovers.
He was surprised at that. He did like to solve the question of who was setting him up.
Good thing he had the detective following him. She helped him out of trouble.
They were given the $2million dollars to split.
But he was given half the money for finding who killed the MacInnes' son. He definitely was not going back to Harvard to teach.
He was surprised at that. He did like to solve the question of who was setting him up.
Good thing he had the detective following him. She helped him out of trouble.
They were given the $2million dollars to split.
But he was given half the money for finding who killed the MacInnes' son. He definitely was not going back to Harvard to teach.
January 1, 2009
This was a good story and certainly an interesting plot. Some of the characters were ones that I could understand but others just didn't seem to have enough life which made me not like this book as much as I probably could have. It really didn't start to get interesting until near the end - I think the beginning was much too slow.
May 5, 2011
This fell into my lap, along with a boatload of other murder mysteries, most of which I tossed aside immediately, but this one kept me reading, mostly for the very interesting female detective character Captain Brouillard. The rest of the characters were kind of the same old characters you always find in these "airport mysteries," but the tough detective character was refreshing and interesting.
May 23, 2015
A quick little murder mystery. Rather predictable for the most part, but not a bad read. It almost seemed the that author wanted to throw you off the trail, but didn't really want you to fall for it. There were a few things that were not quite wrapped up that I would have liked, but it didn't leave the story unfinished.
June 1, 2008
This book was not bad. There were some very interesting parts that left you hanging til the end. It was about the murder of a rich kid and about his family. There was a professor that was trying to help solve the murder and he was working with the lead cop. Parts of the book were kinda slow.
July 2, 2010
Could someone have actually committed murder inside the hallowed Harvard Business School? And is there another murder on the way? The author takes you behind the doors of a place rarely depicted in fiction. The world of academia really is interesting.
March 26, 2013
I'm giving this 3 stars with reservation, would give 2.5 stars if I could, because of the hohum start. I'm a sucker for books with academic settings, but this one didn't do much to describe Harvard. The story picked up though, with a satisfying-enough ending.
April 12, 2010
I found the beginning of the book to be so dull that in the end, I gave it up. Donate pile for me.
February 8, 2011
Just touched the last page of this book and I have to say that i really enjoyed it. I would tell others to take the time to read it
July 7, 2011
I never got fully invested in the characters or the plot, and the denouement seemed contrived.
January 17, 2015
3/2008/3/B
August 16, 2014
Fun, but predictable.
September 24, 2014
Enjoyed it. The ending was a bit confusing, and I daresay, confusing but over all was a good story.
April 15, 2020
One of my 5 best first mysteries read in 2004.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews