Murder Is Academic : A Cambridge Mystery

Rating:
Summary: fun academic amateur sleuth
Review: A professor at St. Ethelreda's College at Cambridge University, Cassandra James is quite content with the life she has made for herself. She is in an exclusive relationship with Stephen, a well known lawyer, and lives in quaint cottage with her cat. One day when she goes to the home of the head of her department Margaret she finds papers lying on the ground in no particular order and in the swimming pool. She tries to get them out but sees Margaret lying lifeless in the pool.

At her husband's request, she goes through Margaret's papers and finds that her head was having an affair with her student Lucy. Lucy died several months ago climbing down a cliff. The authorities think she slipped and hit her head. Cassandra wonders if two deaths could be linked but keeps her suspicions to herself that is until a second student is attacked and later dies. Cassandra has her hands full because she is made the acting head of her department and is pregnant but she still has time to see if the three deaths are connected and if so who is behind the killings.

Readers who adore academic mysteries will like MURDER IS ACADEMIC an amateur sleuth tale that is filled with unexpected twists and turns and plenty of red herrings. The cast is simply brilliant as well as realistic because they behave in ways according to their character. The heroine's relationship with her lover evolves over the course of Christine Poulson's tale and readers will find themselves reading for them to make their relationship legal, that is if she can survive her current crisis. MURDER IS ACADEMIC is a treat for mystery fans.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it could have been...
Review: The description for 'Murder is Academic,' found on the inside flap of its beautifully textured jacket, gives a false impression. The way it's written conveys a sense of tension, suspense, and that the book you are holding is going to be an interesting, thoughtful and perhaps even entertaining read. That's an awful lot for a book to live up to. And, unfortunately, 'Murder is Academic' couldn't quite make it.

It's not that the novel wasn't good exactly. It was a quick read and not once did I think about not finishing it. However, there were a few problems. As one reviewer already noted, it would be very easy to forget that there was a mystery involved in the story at all. For the majority of the novel it takes a back seat to the personal problems of it's sleuth, Cassandra. That wouldn't bother me so much except for the fact that the mystery, when it was brought up, just wasn't all that interesting. It could have been, the potential was definitely there, but it fizzled. I found as the story progressed that I just didn't care. The reason for this may have been that, though there were three deaths in this slim novel, the reader was not given an opportunity to really get to know any of the characters who met their end and, therefore, felt no need for a resolution. And when it finally came, well, um, hurrah! Right. Sure.

The academic slant of the story was somewhat interesting. The professors, though they had quirks that implied entertainment, weren't fleshed out enough. In fact, it was almost as though they were handed their quirks in a pitch to make the novel more interesting. The reader didn't know them well enough to consider them anything but plot devices. Blatant red herrings. The political aspect of academic life was captured well. The push for publication and how a department rests on the scholarship of its professors was nicely and adequately shown. The studies that each of the professors were pursuing were interesting and I would have loved to have heard more about each. Cassandra's speciality came through in rather random moments of a poem remembered or a literary line quoted.

I have to say that though I would have cared for more of a mystery, Cassandra's life issues were plesant enough to read about. One of the most engaging characters in the novel was her lawyer boyfriend, Stephen. He was believable and sympathetic.

Overall, 'Murder is Academic' wasn't enough for me. I have read academic mysteries before, such as the stellar Karen Pelletier mystery series by Joanne Dobson, and know that they can be thoroughly entertaining. That they can blend academic nuances and politics, human emotion and intereaction, and an engaging mystery into a compelling read. It is my hope that if Ms Poulson writes another Cambridge Mystery, she spends more time with her characters, placing an even greater emphasis on academic life, and tightening the mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Promising first book
Review: When her department head is found dead, Cambridge professor Cassandra James gets tapped as acting head--in a department that seems doomed to be eliminated. Only if she can get her fellow professors to start producing publishable material can she keep her job and theirs. With one of them getting messages from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and another completely avoiding her, things don't look promising. But when one of her students is assaulted, she realizes that there have been three suspicious 'accidents' in one very small department.

Cassandra's investigations are limited by her increasing pregnancy. Still, she finally involves the police, alerting them to a lesbian affair between the first student found dead and the dead department head. But the police have lots on their plate and no obvious suspects come to mind. They do warn Cassandra, however, to be careful. Three suspicious deaths in one department should be a clear warning to the new department head.

New author Christine Poulson writes convincingly of the politics and personalities of a college. Whether in England or America, publishing, getting the college name out, and playing politics matter far more than excellence in teaching. Where MURDER IS ACADEMIC fell short, however, was in the mystery itself. Cassandra spent more time cowering in terror than actually investigating. She simply ignored the most obvious clue until the very end of the book, got most of her information from dreams, and finally had the killer's identity handed to her. I enjoyed Poulson's writing style and hope that she'll focus on the mystery in her next mystery.

Rating:
Summary: a nice if not very suspenseful read
Review: When the head of the English department, Margaret Joplin, at St. Etheldreda's College at Cambridge University dies in a seeming accident, lecturer Cassandra James is offered the post as acting head. Her most important job is to see to it that the faculty come up to speed and publish as many articles and books within the year so that the beleaguer college will continue to exist. With so many jobs on the line, especially her's, Cassandra will have to crack the whip. So that when Margaret's husband suggests that Cassandra be Margaret's literary executor, Cassandra agrees to take on the task in the hopes that she will be able to use some of Margaret's work to bolster the department's unimpressive cv. What Cassandra finds in Margaret's papers however suggests that there was a relationship between Margaret and one of the students at the college who had died in a climbing accident a few months earlier. Cassandra begins to wonder: was Margaret's death an accident after all? Could she have been murdered? Cassandra cannot rid herself of the feeling that there is something fishy about Margaret's death, even if evidence points to the whole thing being a coincidence. And she's determined to investigate Margaret's death until she's satisfied...

"Murder is Academic" may not be a recommended read for everyone. It's not really your usual amateur sleuth fare -- it takes place over a much longer period of time (about a year), and unwinds at a more sedate and slightly more long-winded pace -- there were moments when I even began to wonder if there is actually a mystery at hand to resolve! On the other hand, there are quite a few interesting plot twists and red herring suspects, and if you enjoy an in-depth look at what running a troubled English department is like, you're bound to enjoy "Murder is Academic," especially one that is well crafted and beautifully written.