Honorable Mention for the Black Orchid Novella Award from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.
Hartford PI Zach Barnes is hired by lovely theater major Emma Holiday who claims Professor Stark, one of her college professors, drugged her and took nude pictures of her. When she threatened to go to the dean, he told her he would post the pictures online and destroy her budding acting career.
When Barnes and his beautiful companion Beth Shepard investigate, they learn that Stark has a reputation on campus and that several other young women share Emma's experience. The college lacks proof because none of the women will come forward. Then Stark dies in what looks like a staged accident, and Barnes and the police have several likely suspects, all attractive young women.
Barnes has to sift through the college's determined cover-up, conflicting evidence, and a bevy of suspects to find the answer to bring the curtain down before any more people are drawn into the scandal.