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Theoretically Dead
Claire Sinclaire, professor of economics at Hammond College, wanted nothing to do with her partner, Emma Harrington`s philosophy conference. Scholars from all over the country were coming together to discuss the life and work of brilliant philosopher, Erik Weber. Claire could not remain uninvolved however, when she tripped over his body on the sidewalk. It turns out that despite their fascination with his ideas, plenty of Weber`s colleagues had reason to hate him, but which one had opportunity to kill? An amusing and intelligent mystery by new author Tinker Marks.
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 20, 2021
Who knew that a philosophy conference honoring the life and work of brilliant philosopher Erik Weber at Hammond College would result in murder? Certainly not Professor Claire Sinclair, economics professor, and partner to the conference's organizer, Emma Harrington. Claire had planned to give moral support and attend the opening dinner and then give the (to her) deadly dull conference a wide berth. It seemed to her that the biggest danger would be dying of boredom and she plans to plant herself in her own office to do her own work while the conference plays out.
She rapidly gets sucked into picking up conferees at the airport, tracking down special wines, and stumbling over Weber's body on one of her trips across campus. What is he doing in the middle of Iowa? He had disappeared some time ago and no one knew where he was...and he definitely hadn't been invited to the conference. While Emma has to juggle interviews with the police and reporters, Claire winds up serving as substitute host and even giving a eulogy at the man's funeral. When another philosopher winds up dead and the police seem to be focused on an old friend of Emma and Clair, our economics professor turns amateur sleuth...nearly becoming a victim herself when she has her "aha moment" and goes off to prove herself right. At least she takes a friend along for help...though she nearly gets him killed as well.
So....this is another of those books I scooped up from a used bookstore simply because it was a mystery and had an academic slant. It's always a toss-up on what I'm going to get when I go with an author I know nothing about. Theoretically Dead is...well...kind of dead in the water. It's not a horribly bad mystery. It's just....well....bland. For the most part, the characters (especially all those suspects at the philosophy conference) never really take hold of the imagination. The relationship between Claire and Emma baffles me. I can't for the life of me figure out what keeps them together. If my partner were constantly guilting me into doing all sorts of things that I didn't want to do, I'd be pretty resentful--but Claire just keeps giving in.
There are brief moments of humor and I do like the small subplot between Claire and the neighbors. Her moments with Mrs. Leach are really very nice. The motive for the murders is actually a pretty interesting one and the twist should be a good surprise for the reader. But the wrap-up is so mishandled that all the emotional force behind the motive is drained away and twist loses its power surprise. ★★ and a half-ish (rounded down here)--primarily for the mystery plot that could have been and the small subplot.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
She rapidly gets sucked into picking up conferees at the airport, tracking down special wines, and stumbling over Weber's body on one of her trips across campus. What is he doing in the middle of Iowa? He had disappeared some time ago and no one knew where he was...and he definitely hadn't been invited to the conference. While Emma has to juggle interviews with the police and reporters, Claire winds up serving as substitute host and even giving a eulogy at the man's funeral. When another philosopher winds up dead and the police seem to be focused on an old friend of Emma and Clair, our economics professor turns amateur sleuth...nearly becoming a victim herself when she has her "aha moment" and goes off to prove herself right. At least she takes a friend along for help...though she nearly gets him killed as well.
So....this is another of those books I scooped up from a used bookstore simply because it was a mystery and had an academic slant. It's always a toss-up on what I'm going to get when I go with an author I know nothing about. Theoretically Dead is...well...kind of dead in the water. It's not a horribly bad mystery. It's just....well....bland. For the most part, the characters (especially all those suspects at the philosophy conference) never really take hold of the imagination. The relationship between Claire and Emma baffles me. I can't for the life of me figure out what keeps them together. If my partner were constantly guilting me into doing all sorts of things that I didn't want to do, I'd be pretty resentful--but Claire just keeps giving in.
There are brief moments of humor and I do like the small subplot between Claire and the neighbors. Her moments with Mrs. Leach are really very nice. The motive for the murders is actually a pretty interesting one and the twist should be a good surprise for the reader. But the wrap-up is so mishandled that all the emotional force behind the motive is drained away and twist loses its power surprise. ★★ and a half-ish (rounded down here)--primarily for the mystery plot that could have been and the small subplot.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
June 19, 2020
As someone who has published three novels in collaboration with a woman (although not lesbian mysteries, alas), I was anxious to read this book, which is possibly the only husband and wife collaboration in the genre. Writing with someone else—blending two voices—is a tricky proposition—but the writers calling themselves Tinker Marks have done it pretty well. Unfortunately, the voice they have achieved is pretty bland.
Claire Sinclair, an economics professor at Hammond College in Iowa, relates how she discovered the body of a reclusive philosopher on the eve of a conference devoted to his work—a conference engineered by Claire’s philosophy-professor partner Emma. It is Claire that narrates this adventure with a kind of hit-and-miss dry humor. At times it is as if she is narrating it on a stage during open-mike night at the local comedy club. Such as in “Usually I make it a point never to go running when the temperature is below fifteen degrees. I also make it a point never to go running when the temperature is above fifteen degrees.” Sometimes she may get a chuckle, but the sparse audience is mostly silent. The voice—either in its serious or its self-deprecating mode—just wasn’t compelling to me. Although I generally enjoy academic mysteries like Gaudy Night, this one (at least until the last chapter or two) is so slow that it is like watching land erode.
The two main characters in this book, Claire and Emma, remind me of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Samuel Steward’s Murder Is Murder Is Murder—domestic fuddy-duddies of the first magnitude. Trouble is, Gertrude and Alice are past middle age while Claire and Emma are in their early thirties. And although they have only been living together less than a year, they show each other the affection that one eighty-year-old sister might show the other.
Then there is the subplot. Emma is determined to have a child, despite Claire’s lukewarm feelings toward being a co-mother. And when Emma decides to inseminate herself (using sperm that Claire has frozen in a liquid-nitrogen-filled container used by hog breeders), at the very time someone is getting murdered, the story turns farcical. Is the whole book supposed to be a farce? I simply don’t know. And it doesn’t help that the authors manipulate poor Claire into situations she has every reason to avoid. And the relationship between Claire and Emma? Well, if I were Claire, I would be long gone. The mystery itself is so uncompelling, the characters so annoying that I found myself wishing that even more of them would be murdered—and that Emma was found to be the murderer! No such luck.
I’m left with the idea that a husband and wife decided to do a joint project and managed to finish it. Bravo for that. Couples should do things together. And bravo for getting New Victoria to publish it. But that’s about the best that can be said for Theoretically Dead.
Final Rating: 1.5
Note: I read the first printing of the New Victoria edition, which is probably the only one.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
Claire Sinclair, an economics professor at Hammond College in Iowa, relates how she discovered the body of a reclusive philosopher on the eve of a conference devoted to his work—a conference engineered by Claire’s philosophy-professor partner Emma. It is Claire that narrates this adventure with a kind of hit-and-miss dry humor. At times it is as if she is narrating it on a stage during open-mike night at the local comedy club. Such as in “Usually I make it a point never to go running when the temperature is below fifteen degrees. I also make it a point never to go running when the temperature is above fifteen degrees.” Sometimes she may get a chuckle, but the sparse audience is mostly silent. The voice—either in its serious or its self-deprecating mode—just wasn’t compelling to me. Although I generally enjoy academic mysteries like Gaudy Night, this one (at least until the last chapter or two) is so slow that it is like watching land erode.
The two main characters in this book, Claire and Emma, remind me of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Samuel Steward’s Murder Is Murder Is Murder—domestic fuddy-duddies of the first magnitude. Trouble is, Gertrude and Alice are past middle age while Claire and Emma are in their early thirties. And although they have only been living together less than a year, they show each other the affection that one eighty-year-old sister might show the other.
Then there is the subplot. Emma is determined to have a child, despite Claire’s lukewarm feelings toward being a co-mother. And when Emma decides to inseminate herself (using sperm that Claire has frozen in a liquid-nitrogen-filled container used by hog breeders), at the very time someone is getting murdered, the story turns farcical. Is the whole book supposed to be a farce? I simply don’t know. And it doesn’t help that the authors manipulate poor Claire into situations she has every reason to avoid. And the relationship between Claire and Emma? Well, if I were Claire, I would be long gone. The mystery itself is so uncompelling, the characters so annoying that I found myself wishing that even more of them would be murdered—and that Emma was found to be the murderer! No such luck.
I’m left with the idea that a husband and wife decided to do a joint project and managed to finish it. Bravo for that. Couples should do things together. And bravo for getting New Victoria to publish it. But that’s about the best that can be said for Theoretically Dead.
Final Rating: 1.5
Note: I read the first printing of the New Victoria edition, which is probably the only one.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
February 5, 2017
The genre listed on the back is "Mystery/Lesbian." It should be: "Humor/Lesbian/Academia/Mystery."
There is more about sperm, relationships, philosophy, and academic disputes than about investigating a murder. If you keep that in mind and don't consider this a traditional murder mystery, you can enjoy this book immensely.
After all, how many murder mysteries have an opening line such as this?
"Imagine you were on your way to a party where people would talk about things like 'Conceptual Traditions in Agnostic Ontology' or 'Existential Dilemmas in Cartesian Dualism.' Would you be in a hurry?"
[Iowa mention]
There is more about sperm, relationships, philosophy, and academic disputes than about investigating a murder. If you keep that in mind and don't consider this a traditional murder mystery, you can enjoy this book immensely.
After all, how many murder mysteries have an opening line such as this?
"Imagine you were on your way to a party where people would talk about things like 'Conceptual Traditions in Agnostic Ontology' or 'Existential Dilemmas in Cartesian Dualism.' Would you be in a hurry?"
[Iowa mention]
October 26, 2007
Funfunfun. A murder mystery centered around a lesbian couple, with a little artificial insemination talk thrown in for good measure. Written by two of my husband's college professors.
October 25, 2007
Written by two of my college professors, and it's a great read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews