Ann DiPietro: Academic angst

Dear Great Book Guru,

Rain, rain go away… I am so upset - a huge favorite of mine, Hunt and Hughes - was rained out at the latest Sunset Serenade.  I need a good book to read this week as I hope for sunny days ahead! 

Sunset Serenade Despite the Rain Fan    

Dear Sunset Serenade Despite the Rain Fan, I just read a debut mystery “Blunt Instrument” by a favorite novelist of mine, Amy Bloom. Dee Chandler is a former English professor who has lost her teaching position because of “anger management” issues but has found a new profession: private investigator.

Her qualifications are rather limited – basically, obsessive viewing of the TV series “Law & Order.” When she gets a call to investigate the murder of Oliver Bullfinch, a widely disliked English professor at a posh New England college, she quickly accepts and a madcap series of misadventures begins. 

We meet a wide array of exquisitely drawn characters, all of whom have ample reason to want Bullfinch dead. From the murder weapon – a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne - to a score of plagiarized dissertations - the world of academia is seen through a comedic, albeit violent lens. 

When the murderer is finally revealed, the reader realizes this has been both an exciting literary mystery and an amusing spoof on college politics. Recommended.

Would you like to ask the Great Book Guru for a book suggestion? Contact her at annmdipietro@gmail.com.