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Nick Hoffman #3
The Death of a Constant Lover
Nick Hoffman's been warned by his chair at the State University of Michigan to avoid trouble if he has any hopes of getting tenure. But his presence at the scene of a murder that involves a favorite student immediately threatens his position at the university, and soon after, his life.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
5 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Lev Raphael
46 books54 followersI've wanted to be an author since I was in second grade and fell in love with "The Three Musketeers", which I read to pieces. It hasn't been a swashbuckling life exactly, but one full of surprises, including recently selling my literary papers to Michigan State University's Libraries.
Since second grade, I've loved all sorts of books and have ended up writing nineteen books in many genres: memoir, mystery, short story collections, a children's book, and more. I've been an academic, a radio DJ, had my own talk show, and currently have three terrific giugs.
I write a monthly column for Bibliobuffet.com called Book Brunch. I blog at Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lev-rap...). And I do a monthly "Under the Radar" book review for WKAR 90.5 FM in East Lansing, MI. I'm always on the lookout for beautifully written books in any genre, but I more and more favor books from smaller presses, because they need more exposure.
I love reading my work and have done hundreds of readings on three different continents. Readings are performances, and I practice, practice, practice.
Since second grade, I've loved all sorts of books and have ended up writing nineteen books in many genres: memoir, mystery, short story collections, a children's book, and more. I've been an academic, a radio DJ, had my own talk show, and currently have three terrific giugs.
I write a monthly column for Bibliobuffet.com called Book Brunch. I blog at Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lev-rap...). And I do a monthly "Under the Radar" book review for WKAR 90.5 FM in East Lansing, MI. I'm always on the lookout for beautifully written books in any genre, but I more and more favor books from smaller presses, because they need more exposure.
I love reading my work and have done hundreds of readings on three different continents. Readings are performances, and I practice, practice, practice.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 16, 2022
I have mixed feelings. I don’t read much mystery (any really) but this did not feel very…suspenseful. Nothing really ever felt on the line. I knew everything was going to be okay. And the dialogue was a little too perfect. It wasn’t bad my any means- there was a lot to enjoy. I just couldn’t read for too long because the main character kinda got on my nerves. But it was fun, and I loved the relationship between Stefan and Nick. This book was basically middle-aged people making references to things I have no knowledge of and gossiping about murder. I am decidedly not the target audience.
December 5, 2015
As I settle into this series – book 3 of eight – I’m getting used to the slightly bizarre combination of pastoral superlatives and interpersonal atrocities that make up Nick Hoffman’s life. I guess this is always the problem when you set a series of murder mysteries in the same place: it makes that place seem weirdly cursed. It’s rather like the superb Inspector Lewis series that PBS put out – you wonder why anyone in their right mind would send a child to Oxford when students seem to get murdered every month or so (not to mention the faculty). But Nick and his longtime partner Stefan Borowski seem to be settled into the upscale suburban comfort of the fictional Michiganopolis, each of them pursuing his academic career at the huge state university, Stefan as a writer, Nick as a teacher of writing.
Throughout the books there is an odd counterpoint between the mayhem-filled outside world and the elegant, comfortable retreat of their house. In between fairly appalling murders and almost equally grisly interactions with university faculty and administrators, Nick and Stefan meet back at their lovely colonial home. Here they talk, cook, garden, fight, make love and generally fret about the mess going on outside their door. It’s interesting how important this house is to this series (so far). Raphael makes such conscious effort to describe the ingredients and actions of their cooking, the type of wine and alcohol they drink, the colors and contours of the rooms and the garden, that it seems to represent a sort of protective spell the two men cast to insulate themselves from the horrors without.
This is part of what I find so compelling about the Nick Hoffman books: there is so much going on that happens on a very intimate scale. Ostensibly about murders, the books are really about relationships, first and foremost is that of the two protagonists. Nick is out and around the campus, witnessing murders, talking to people and trying to navigate the minefield of his career and to discover why bad things happen. But Stefan almost never interacts with anyone “on screen” except for Nick, and whatever mutual friend or acquaintance might be with them. We learn nothing about Stefan’s academic life except through Nick’s passing references. What we learn about Stefan is through Nick’s close observation of their life together.
One character in this book comments that “Stefan and Nick are so smooth together—like ice skaters with perfect lines.” But that’s external perception. Nick and Stefan are not Ozzie and Harriet. They have baggage, much of it drawn from their fraught relationships with their rather different Jewish parents, all of whom are in some ways survivors of the Holocaust. But it goes beyond that; neither man is a particularly easy person to get along with. We don’t fall into relaxed affection for Nick or for Stefan. Stefan is aloof and self-absorbed. Nick is neurotic and, frankly, sort of whiney. They’re both rather emotionally stunted, except possibly with each other. Nick ruminates, as he watches Stefan react to bad professional news: “There was a special cruelty in life to watching someone you love suffer and being utterly unable to help.” They’re not immediately likeable, and yet there’s an endearing honesty in both of them. Confronted with an arrogant but beautiful graduate student, Nick admits, “Maybe someday I would stop being unnerved by men who were so handsome and self-assured, but I didn’t think it’d be any time soon.” Raphael takes great pains to bring out the internal goodness of both men, those faithful, committed personalities that bind them with love to each other and ultimately make the reader (or, at least, this reader) grow to love them in turn like difficult friends one has known for many years.
As central to the flavor of the narrative as the murders are, it is the university itself that is the largest and, frankly, most appalling character in the story. In referring to the students at SUM, Nick reflects that “[t]hey were at the university only because SUM wanted their money. Education had long since stopped being a privilege at SUM and the country at large: it was nothing more than a business transaction, and often a rip-off.” With some exceptions—allies Nick has made in the earlier books, and a potential good new friend who appears in this one for the first time—the faculty are described as an “assemblage of braggarts, egotists, careerists and no-talents.” When Nick and Stefan visit the dean of their college as they probe the facts surrounding the murder, Nick remarks: “I felt suffocated by heat and clichés: the leather bound author sets, the hunting prints, the lead crystal bottle stoppers on the Renaissance style bar cabinet, the smug air of anglo-fraudulence.” It’s a funny line, but it does make one wonder why either of them wants to stay here. And, indeed, they ask each other that very question.
I don’t mean to say that the murder mystery doesn’t matter, but the facts of death are very deeply intertwined with the dynamics of Nick and Stefan’s interactions with other people in their lives, and with the dynamics of their own relationship. Death is a catalyst, a trigger, but it is never really the point. That may sound odd for a murder mystery, but for me it’s at the center of what makes these books so good.
Throughout the books there is an odd counterpoint between the mayhem-filled outside world and the elegant, comfortable retreat of their house. In between fairly appalling murders and almost equally grisly interactions with university faculty and administrators, Nick and Stefan meet back at their lovely colonial home. Here they talk, cook, garden, fight, make love and generally fret about the mess going on outside their door. It’s interesting how important this house is to this series (so far). Raphael makes such conscious effort to describe the ingredients and actions of their cooking, the type of wine and alcohol they drink, the colors and contours of the rooms and the garden, that it seems to represent a sort of protective spell the two men cast to insulate themselves from the horrors without.
This is part of what I find so compelling about the Nick Hoffman books: there is so much going on that happens on a very intimate scale. Ostensibly about murders, the books are really about relationships, first and foremost is that of the two protagonists. Nick is out and around the campus, witnessing murders, talking to people and trying to navigate the minefield of his career and to discover why bad things happen. But Stefan almost never interacts with anyone “on screen” except for Nick, and whatever mutual friend or acquaintance might be with them. We learn nothing about Stefan’s academic life except through Nick’s passing references. What we learn about Stefan is through Nick’s close observation of their life together.
One character in this book comments that “Stefan and Nick are so smooth together—like ice skaters with perfect lines.” But that’s external perception. Nick and Stefan are not Ozzie and Harriet. They have baggage, much of it drawn from their fraught relationships with their rather different Jewish parents, all of whom are in some ways survivors of the Holocaust. But it goes beyond that; neither man is a particularly easy person to get along with. We don’t fall into relaxed affection for Nick or for Stefan. Stefan is aloof and self-absorbed. Nick is neurotic and, frankly, sort of whiney. They’re both rather emotionally stunted, except possibly with each other. Nick ruminates, as he watches Stefan react to bad professional news: “There was a special cruelty in life to watching someone you love suffer and being utterly unable to help.” They’re not immediately likeable, and yet there’s an endearing honesty in both of them. Confronted with an arrogant but beautiful graduate student, Nick admits, “Maybe someday I would stop being unnerved by men who were so handsome and self-assured, but I didn’t think it’d be any time soon.” Raphael takes great pains to bring out the internal goodness of both men, those faithful, committed personalities that bind them with love to each other and ultimately make the reader (or, at least, this reader) grow to love them in turn like difficult friends one has known for many years.
As central to the flavor of the narrative as the murders are, it is the university itself that is the largest and, frankly, most appalling character in the story. In referring to the students at SUM, Nick reflects that “[t]hey were at the university only because SUM wanted their money. Education had long since stopped being a privilege at SUM and the country at large: it was nothing more than a business transaction, and often a rip-off.” With some exceptions—allies Nick has made in the earlier books, and a potential good new friend who appears in this one for the first time—the faculty are described as an “assemblage of braggarts, egotists, careerists and no-talents.” When Nick and Stefan visit the dean of their college as they probe the facts surrounding the murder, Nick remarks: “I felt suffocated by heat and clichés: the leather bound author sets, the hunting prints, the lead crystal bottle stoppers on the Renaissance style bar cabinet, the smug air of anglo-fraudulence.” It’s a funny line, but it does make one wonder why either of them wants to stay here. And, indeed, they ask each other that very question.
I don’t mean to say that the murder mystery doesn’t matter, but the facts of death are very deeply intertwined with the dynamics of Nick and Stefan’s interactions with other people in their lives, and with the dynamics of their own relationship. Death is a catalyst, a trigger, but it is never really the point. That may sound odd for a murder mystery, but for me it’s at the center of what makes these books so good.
January 30, 2022
At this point I'm not entirely sure the author wants to be writing mysteries. There are murders and the main character does, on rare occasions, does ask questions of various suspects but for the most part the book focuses on his career, that of his partner, and gently skewering university politics. It's a fine enough book but the pulpy murder tale happens almost exclusively off screen. Also, this is the third book in the series and I'm getting awfully tired of the main character whining about tenure.
January 4, 2009
Another great book from this amazing author! He can really spin a story and you can bet that you will encounter truly intriguing characters in his books. I liked this one a lot and it was so funny when people learned that Nick stumbled across yet another dead body, the poor thing. I can't wait to read the next book in this quirky series!
January 6, 2021
I will open with the same comment I noted from previous reviews, this is not a romance novel. This is foremost a mystery with a supporting, established gay relationship. I greatly enjoy a book that explores the nuances of a mature couple and I appreciate this aspect when I can find it. With this latest book, I do recommend reading the series in order – it will help explain the relationships and over-arching plot lines.
As noted in the blurb, the Nick Hoffman series are cozy mysteries set on the fictional State University of Michigan campus. Nick and his partner, Stephan, are employed by the same department and Nick is under no illusion he is only there because the Department wanted Stephan as their resident author. Nick is also up for tenure and has been warned, in no uncertain terms, “don’t make any waves”. It is a fractious, argumentative, contentious department and Nick continues to wonder if he wants to stay.
Within the parameters of two murders, this installment explores the foundation of relationships and how one person can so easily sow seeds of discontent. Nick watches as a murder tears apart one family, and, despite outward appearances, questions if *he* wants to continue to stay in Stephan’s shadow. For a cozy mystery, I thought this delved into the darker psyche of people’s motivations and behaviors, which was different and interesting.
I quite enjoyed this book - The wonderful thing about cozy mysteries is they aren’t perfect. I know going in that there are an unrealistic number of murders in one location, nobody likes the detective, and the protagonist will figure it out. I keep coming back to the Nick Hoffman series because I’m invested in Nick and his relationship with Stephan, I want to know what Nick is going to do about his position at SUM, and I adore the subtle humor that weaves its way through the books. I’m looking forward to the next installment.
NOTE: This book was provided by the author for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
As noted in the blurb, the Nick Hoffman series are cozy mysteries set on the fictional State University of Michigan campus. Nick and his partner, Stephan, are employed by the same department and Nick is under no illusion he is only there because the Department wanted Stephan as their resident author. Nick is also up for tenure and has been warned, in no uncertain terms, “don’t make any waves”. It is a fractious, argumentative, contentious department and Nick continues to wonder if he wants to stay.
Within the parameters of two murders, this installment explores the foundation of relationships and how one person can so easily sow seeds of discontent. Nick watches as a murder tears apart one family, and, despite outward appearances, questions if *he* wants to continue to stay in Stephan’s shadow. For a cozy mystery, I thought this delved into the darker psyche of people’s motivations and behaviors, which was different and interesting.
I quite enjoyed this book - The wonderful thing about cozy mysteries is they aren’t perfect. I know going in that there are an unrealistic number of murders in one location, nobody likes the detective, and the protagonist will figure it out. I keep coming back to the Nick Hoffman series because I’m invested in Nick and his relationship with Stephan, I want to know what Nick is going to do about his position at SUM, and I adore the subtle humor that weaves its way through the books. I’m looking forward to the next installment.
NOTE: This book was provided by the author for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
March 4, 2018
Enjoyed this book. Even though written in 1999 it read as though written yesterday. Life as an academic, sexual harassment, affirmative action, you name the problem it was there. All told with a sense of humor. I highly recommend it and will read more of Lev.
May 31, 2019
Why did he name real places like UofM and Ann Arbor but made up hokey names like SUM and Michiganoplis. Not impressed with the story. Read to the end mostly to see if it would redeem the faults. It didn't.
August 6, 2025
Academic miasma ends in murder....
June 8, 2019
This is the third Nick Hoffman mystery, and we find Nick trying to get back to academia, but murders keep getting in the way. I keep thinking Nick will say, "I see dead people". This is a fun read and I love Nick's quick wit.
December 15, 2013
Witty, sexy, literate: that's the kind of mystery Raphael writes, and each book in the series is uniquee.
January 29, 2017
Wow. I can not believe I had missed reading this book. It was great to be back in Michigan with Nick.
May 15, 2020
3.5*
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews