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Schooled in Murder–very bookish cozy mystery
Schooled in Murder
By Victoria Gilbert
Jennifer (Jenn) Dalton is the director of the campus writing center at Clarion University in northern Virginia. She is also the author, under a pseudonym, of a mystery series. As it turns out, when there is a murder on campus and Jenn discovers the body, she is able to successfully apply some of the investigative skills from her writing to ferret out the murderer. She has some help from unusual sources—Bri, a research librarian at the university, and Christine, the long time manager of the cafeteria on campus. In the middle of their sleuthing, another murder occurs. Are there two murderers on campus? Are the murders related?
Much to the dismay of Dr. Zachary (Zach) Flynn, a psychologist who comes to Jenn’s rescue on several occasions, Jenn keeps putting herself into dangerous situations without foreseeing any potential risk. Someone is out to stop Jenn’s investigations at any cost.
As the first book in this cozy mystery series, Schooled in Murder, is a good debut to a university whodunit. The novel is very bookish in that much of the setting is the university library or the writing center located in the basement of the library. I’m sure libraries have changed a lot since I was in college, but it reminded me of roaming through the stacks which could be a little intimidating—very quiet, dark, and rather like a maze with study carrels sprinkled throughout. Thankfully, the only crime I ever saw in my university library was a chocoholic sneaking in a little bag of M & M’s to get her through an evening of study.
The main characters in Schooled in Murder are likable, but there is a lot of infighting as professors vie for long term positions and tenure. Some of the characters have romantic involvements and professional literary conflicts that make them possible suspects also. The solutions to these crimes emerge from the tangle of personalities and motivations. I admit, I did not see some of them coming until the author chose to insert a crisis. I recommend Schooled in Murder and will be looking for the next in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Fiction, Mystery
Notes: 1. #1 in the Campus Sleuth Mystery Series
2. Victoria Gilbert has a number of books to her credit including The Blue Ridge Library Mysteries which take place in the same community as Schooled in Murder.
3. Clean language and the romance is limited to kissing.
Publication: January 7, 2025—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
It’s a lot different when it’s real, I thought, mentally offering apologies to my characters for the frightening scenarios I’d placed them in over and over again, all for the sake of excitement and forward momentum.
But there are great authors who write gorgeous, deeply thoughtful poetry or prose, who are absolute jerks in real life. Talent and kindness don’t always corollate.
The Ghost Orchid–so many questions
The Ghost Orchid
By Jonathan Kellerman
When you want to read a hard core mystery (i.e. not the cozy mysteries I enjoy so much with predictable characters and happy endings), The Ghost Orchid is a good choice. The protagonist of the series is a PhD. psychologist. He has a home office where he specializes in working with judges and divorcing parents when there are issues involving children. He also consults on special cases for the police, especially Milo, a detective with the rank of lieutenant.
I really like Alex as a character. He is both smart and wise and can withhold judgement until everything he needs to see comes to light. I especially like that although he is extremely talented at both detecting in the criminal realm and helping others with psychological issues, he is a humble man.
In The Ghost Orchid, the major plot line is the murder of a man and a woman, both shot while relaxing at a private swimming pool. Just determining their identities, addresses, and family connections is a major puzzling challenge. Whose home are they in and what are their occupations? The usual channels of text messages and social media don’t reveal much, but Milo and Alex keep picking at the pieces until they get some leads. When interviewing subjects, Milo takes the lead as the officer in charge of the case, but sometimes Alex’s perceptive insights are more effective and soften the interviewee. The duo is good at sharing the questioning depending on the situation.
Another plot line involves a young teenager who was adopted out of bad circumstances in Ukraine when he was five. Now, his rich adoptive parents are divorcing. The judge views this situation with compassion for the boy and asks Alex to evaluate, recommend, and treat. This minor plot line does not intersect the main one, but as a reader I found it important for understanding more about Alex. It also allowed me to come up for air after reading the tense and surprising conclusion to the major plot. Hint: when a book begins with two dead people, the ending will not be one of cupcakes and confetti. The journey through the lives of the protagonists as clues are discovered and revealed is a difficult one.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery & Suspense
Notes: 1. #39 in the Alex Delaware Mystery series, but could be read as a standalone. I have only read a few in the series, but I enjoyed all of them and had no problem needing further background information.
2. There is a lot of swearing.
3. The author has a PhD. In psychology, but that in no way turns the novel into something pedantic.
Publication: February 6, 2024—Random House/Ballentine
Memorable Lines:
“Unknown suspect from an unknown place murdering a mystery woman? Gee, thanks for clarifying.”
Rooney’s nomadic life offered an additional fringe benefit: law enforcement tends to think locally so by shifting locales criminals avoid piling up too much iniquity in any one jurisdiction.
Time was nearly up and there’s no point in opening up worm cans unless you’re going to be sitting for a while and fishing.
Unnatural History–crime novel
Unnatural History
by Jonathan Kellerman
Dr. Alex Delaware is a psychologist with great insight into the workings of the human mind. He freelances working with the courts as an expert witness, often in family court when there is a custody conflict. In his spare time, he goes to crime scenes when his friend Milo, a homicide lieutenant requests his input which he only does when he sees that a case is going to be “different.”
The case in Unnatural History is indeed very different. A rich young man working out of a bare bones photography studio is found murdered. He has been giving homeless people a makeover according to their fantasy dream career. He pays each one $500 cash, and everything is on the up and up. Everyone has only kind words to say about the deceased, but his family background is sad and he had learning difficulties. Milo, Alex, and several younger detectives try to make sense out of the case, interviewing multiple, often foggy, homeless people. They are also trying to locate the victim’s extremely rich, reclusive father who seems to make a hobby of marrying, siring a child, and divorcing, leaving a trail of wealthy half brothers and sisters who barely know each other. Things get even crazier when some of the victim’s photographic subjects become victims themselves. There are lots of suspects and possible motivations, and Alex and Milo have to bring their A game to this case.
One of the things I like about this book is the way the author treats the rampant homelessness in Los Angeles. So many people take the extreme view of “these poor people are just victims” or at the other end of the spectrum that the fault is all their own, a result of their sinful nature or lack of self-discipline. In fact, homelessness has many causes and manifestations from drug and alcohol use to mental problems. Via Alex, the author takes the reader through a brief history of changes in government policies without funding to support the necessary programs. I remember these changes in the 1970’s, and the discussion of it in the book is accurate.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery and Thriller, General Fiction
Notes: 1. #38 in the Alex Delaware series, but absolutely could be read as a standalone. The mystery depends on the case, not on character development.
2. As a crime novel, there are, of course, victims, but there is no play by play depiction of the violence.
3. Psychological issues are present, but the book does not drop into the realm of creepy.
4. Contains a lot of swearing, but no sex.
Publication: February 7, 2023—Ballantine (Random House)
Memorable Lines:
When you’re all strung up, there’s nothing less helpful than being told to calm down. But cops aren’t therapists and confronting anxiety kicks in their own fears of madness and impulse. So they keep saying it and getting nowhere and the beat goes on.
I did ask him what it was like working with the unhomed community in general. He said they were prisoners of circumstances and that created unnatural histories for them.
“Something with money, I assume?” “Why would you assume that?” “Because money is like dirt, Lieutenant. When it is skimpy dust, no one cares. When it collects into a mountain, people do crazy things to climb it.”
City of the Dead–homicides in L.A.
City of the Dead
by Jonathan Kellerman
City of the Dead is the first Jonathan Kellerman mystery for me, but it is certainly not his first suspenseful book. In fact, it is the thirty-seventh book that features Alex Delaware, a psychologist who is frequently called on by the police to make sense out of crimes and uncover the perpetrator. Although I might have enjoyed the book more if I had read others in the series, I had no problem following this tough as nails plot. It begins with a double homicide when a truck collides with a nude young man and a barely noticeable trail of blood leads to a nearby house where another body is found. Alex is called in to consult. He does not interact much in interviews, but the police rely heavily on his instincts and perceptions based on his observations of those interviews.
While aiding in this case, he is working on a separate case in his professional practice. He interviews the members of divorcing couples to advise the family court judge of his custody recommendations. This time the child is a three year old girl. The mother hails from a wealthy background, and the father is a professor with Ivy League credentials who jumps from job to job. His specialty, besides the study of symbolism, seems to be disparaging his wife because she is not an academic.
Alex Delaware is an interesting character—highly intelligent, a keen observer, and compassionate in a professional way. He interacts well with the police officers he works with; they sometimes need his help and counsel personally and professionally. His own support system is his partner Robin who restores and repairs musical instruments. They both have offices and work spaces at home which involves them in each other’s work at least minimally.
Pieces of this puzzle gradually come together, especially as more DNA evidence emerges. The tricky part is knowing whom to get that evidence from and where to look for it. The joint, noncompetitive efforts of the police and Alex pull out some interesting clues. In the end, the killer is a surprise as the last pieces of the puzzle are put together. If you like a mystery that is a little tougher and more suspenseful than a cozy mystery, you’ll probably like this one.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Ballantine Books (Random House) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery and Thriller, General Fiction (Adult)
Notes: 1. #37 in the Alex Delaware Mystery Series, but could be read as a standalone.
2. Contains descriptions of the results of violent acts and some objectionable language.
Publication: February 8, 2022—Ballantine Books (Random House)
Memorable Lines:
But when I embark on a custody consult, optimism falls by the wayside and I assume everyone’s going to lie to me.
The practice of family law—of law, in general—has nothing to do with truth and everything to do with brinkmanship and illusion.
Humans are programmed to detest uncertainty, and nothing ruins a detective’s life more than too many question marks.
education pathways 