A Little Class on Murder (A Death on Demand Mystery)

From Publishers Weekly
The fifth in a series featuring bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Annie Laurence Darling ( Death on Demand ), this tale is long on literary allusions but short on momentum. Invited to teach a class on mystery novels, offered for some strange reason in the journalism, rather than the English department of a local college, Annie finds that university politics become grist for the school's paper. Student editor Brad Kelly's expose of a professor's embezzlement, and of the journalism department's apparent cover-up, lead to that instructor's suicide. Department chair R. T. Burke tracks the source for Kelly's story, but before he can disclose it, Burke is murdered and the newspaper office bombed, killing a secretary. Annie and her P.I. husband, Max, who had been hired to investigate the suicide, tolerate the cheerfully irritating help of Laurel, Max's mother; Miss Dora, a college trustee; and Henny, Annie's best customer, described by Annie as "a free spirit, an old bat, and a mystery nut." Several additional characters are also mystery nuts who frequently cite plots, characters and authors. This ploy does not compensate for Hart's thin characterizations or her penchant for lists and chronologies that undercut the suspense. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"Hart has a light touch with her characters, a fresh heroine in Annie, and a delightfully different setting!"

-- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine


Review
"Hart has a light touch with her characters, a fresh heroine in Annie, and a delightfully different setting!"

-- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine


Book Description
When mystery bookstore owner Annie Laurance is invited to teach "The Three Great Ladies of the Mystery" class at Chastain Community College, the sometime sleuth discovers that all is not strictly academic in Chastain's hallowed halls of learning. And when a shocking scandal in the school newspaper erupts in a suicide and two violent deaths, Professor Laurance enlists the talents of her new hubby, private eye Max Darling, and dons her thinking cap to probe intrigue and vengeance among Chastain's faculty.A Dangerous ThingMax and Annie, with dubious help from three of their own great ladies of the mystery -- Annie's pixilated mother-in-law, a batty local dowager, and a Christie crime fanatic -- learn that just about everyone at the school had means, motive, and access to the murder weapons. From the secretly boozing professor of advertising to the muscle-bound campus cad who barters passing grades for a little extracurricular activity, anyone on the faculty is a possible killer -- waiting to strike again!"Hart has a light touch with her characters, a fresh heroine in Annie, and a delightfully different setting!"-- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine


From the Inside Flap
When mystery bookstore owner Annie Laurance is invited to teach "The Three Great Ladies of the Mystery" class at Chastain Community College, the sometime sleuth discovers that all is not strictly academic in Chastain's hallowed halls of learning. And when a shocking scandal in the school newspaper erupts in a suicide and two violent deaths, Professor Laurance enlists the talents of her new hubby, private eye Max Darling, and dons her thinking cap to probe intrigue and vengeance among Chastain's faculty.

A Dangerous Thing

Max and Annie, with dubious help from three of their own great ladies of the mystery -- Annie's pixilated mother-in-law, a batty local dowager, and a Christie crime fanatic -- learn that just about everyone at the school had means, motive, and access to the murder weapons. From the secretly boozing professor of advertising to the muscle-bound campus cad who barters passing grades for a little extracurricular activity, anyone on the faculty is a possible killer -- waiting to strike again!


From the Back Cover
"Hart has a light touch with her characters, a fresh heroine in Annie, and a delightfully different setting!"-- Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine


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The fifth in a series featuring bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Annie Laurence Darling ( Death on Demand ), this tale is long on literary allusions but short on momentum. Invited to teach a class on mystery novels, offered for some strange reason in the journalism, rather than the English department of a local college, Annie finds that university politics become grist for the school's paper. Student editor Brad Kelly's expose of a professor's embezzlement, and of the journalism department's apparent cover-up, lead to that instructor's suicide. Department chair R. T. Burke tracks the source for Kelly's story, but before he can disclose it, Burke is murdered and the newspaper office bombed, killing a secretary. Annie and her P.I. husband, Max, who had been hired to investigate the suicide, tolerate the cheerfully irritating help of Laurel, Max's mother; Miss Dora, a college trustee; and Henny, Annie's best customer, described by Annie as ``a free spirit, an old bat, and a mystery nut.'' Several additional characters are also mystery nuts who frequently cite plots, characters and authors. This ploy does not compensate for Hart's thin characterizations or her penchant for lists and chronologies that undercut the suspense. (Dec.)


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