Ivory Tower

by Grant Matthew Jenkins

Ivory Tower is a campus thriller about Margolis Santos, a charismatic film professor in her prime, who risks her career and life to uncover sexual corruption inside her university's football program where rich boosters pay sorority girls to have sex with star recruits. When we find Margolis, she's embroiled in a sex scandal of her own that sends her life into a tailspin. She unthinkingly sleeps with a student from another school, and when the parents find out, they threaten to sue her university. To protect its reputation, the ambitious university president, Art 'Lightning' Lane, decides to fire her. As she fights for her job, Margolis slowly learns from her 17-year-old daughter, Brie, and crackerjack senior, Emma Barnes, what is happening in the Theta sorority house. Billionaire football donor, Chet Orchard, is orchestrating there a new recruiting scheme where Theta sisters 'date' potential players with the expectation of sexual favors. Margolis is desperate to put a stop to the sexual exploitation and violence. The trouble is, her husband, Frank Sinoro, is the head football coach, while her daughter loves the sorority, so she has to make a choice. Margolis has to find a way to protect her family, while also saving the women on campus and, eventually, her own soul.

386 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2020

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ivory Tower by Grant M. Jenkins offers the best of all worlds for the mystery and thriller reader. Not only is there abundant nastiness and malice, best of all it takes place at a university in the United States. Surrounded by naïve students and conniving faculty the novel trips along at a breakneck pace which makes the pages fly.
Capitalizing on the news of the day, Jenkins tells an intriguing story of a football program oozing corruption and an administration willingly co-opting academia in order to achieve a championship. Throw in sex offered to blue-chip recruits, a professor or two sleeping with inappropriate partners and ever-present gossip and innuendo, all the ingredients necessary to produce a flavorful and enticing novel by a first-class writer.

[Sandy Zingo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a page turner and fast read. It captivated me from the very beginning. Wonderful.

[Mark Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

An energetic, fast-paced story about an important contemporary topic. There were a lot of good twists and turns and it wasn't clear what was going to happen. I found myself genuinely rooting for the main character to succeed. The subject matter was explored well without ever sacrificing the story.

[Deb Harmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique writing style -- almost as if reading a screenplay. Action-packed with lots of current, hot-button issues.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast-paced novel based on the current events of campus sexual assault. Entirely plausible scenario. Well-developed characters. I enjoyed this book even when I thought I might not since I work in the field. Jenkins got it right though and tells an entertaining story in the process.