Irrational Numbers

Bonnie Pinkwater Mystery #3

by Robert Spiller

When her phone number is found in the pocket of a murdered student who previously came out of the closet in a speech to his classmates, full-time math teacher and part-time troublemaker Bonnie Pinkwater is drawn into the case. Joining forces with the school's principal, Lloyd Whittaker, Bonnie begins to investigate—only to have potential suspects start turning up dead. Using logic and math as a backbone of her investigation, Bonnie must catch the killer before she, too, is added to the growing list of bodies in this chilling casebook full of stunning twists and turns.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller

342 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Robert Spiller lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Barbara. Napier's Bones is the fifth in the Bonnie Pinkwater adult cozy mystery series preceded by The Witch of Agnesi, A Calculated Demise, Irrational Numbers, and Radical Equations. A mathematics teacher for thirty-five years, Robert recently retired to write full time.

Reviews

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Spiller continues to blend together mathematical history with a tight mystery that keeps you guessing. I enjoy visiting with "Missus P" and her group of teachers, students and friends who all somehow get involved in a murder. I will agree with a friend of mine who claims that there are too many murders happening, three in this book with two other "almosts" and another two that are threatened, including Mrs. Pinkwater. Since the stories are set in a small town in Colorado the body count is starting to get alarmingly high.

I'll keep reading them, I enjoy them for the most part, but am hoping we can get down to a single death per book.

[Tom McCaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this as much as the other two Bonnie Pinkwater series.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series gets better with each book. The main characters are now well established, and the central characters (victim(s) and killer) are also depicted very well. It is quite easy to forego any fullness of character for one who will only appear in one story, but Robert Spiller gives even the victim a personality so that we feel that we are involved in the story as well -- we do become invested in the death (and life) of that character.

What makes these books more than just the average cozy mystery are the side stories. Bonnie Pinkwater is first and foremost a teacher and mathematician. She shares with us a story of a famous female mathematician in each book. In this one, Sofia Kovalevskaya is that thread that runs through and around the modern story. These historical personages are what keep these stories on track and they have the added attraction of giving me something to learn so that I do some basic research to learn more about these remarkable women.

[Sharon Mensing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cozy western mystery involving a math teacher sleuth and a gay victim. Not bad, not great. Fun.