Official verdict: Suicide.
But why would that vigorous department chairman kill himself? To avoid disgrace? Those rumored ventures on the dark side? Some other secret life? Visiting professor Preston Barclay wonders. But his questions bring no answers, only anonymous threats. He has enough problems already, proving himself on a strange campus while radical faculty do all they can to undermine him. Worse yet, that sexy siren assigned as his assistant complicates his courtship of the beautiful Mara Thorn.
While Press keeps asking questions, Mara’s research reveals a cancer of criminal activity that permeates the community and even the campus itself. The more Press questions, the more dangerous the threats against him become, and the more determined he grows to clear his friend’s name.
But can Press and Mara’s stumbling efforts prevail against the entrenched forces of the police, the campus radicals, and an unseen but powerful criminal organization that increasingly puts their lives in danger . . . ?
With a PhD in English literature (Renaissance), Donn Taylor taught literature for 18 years at two liberal arts colleges. Now retired, he has published suspense novels, mysteries, and poetry. His historical novel “Lightning on a Quiet Night” was a finalist for the 2015 Selah Awards. He is a frequent speaker at writers’ conferences. In a prior incarnation, he led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. He now lives in the woods near Houston, TX, where he writes fiction, poetry, and essays on current topics.
Find out more about Donn at http://www.donntaylor.com.
My Impressions:
Professor Preston Barclay is back in Donn Taylor’s third novel featuring murder in academia, Murder in Disguise. In this new mystery, Press is a visiting professor at a state university. His summer plans of low-key teaching and reading are interrupted by the apparent suicide of the head of the History department. Although he adamantly proclaims that he is not investigating what the widow suspects is foul play, everyone from the janitor to the associate professors to the local police are on notice that Press is on the case.
Mysterious doings are the center of Murder in Disguise. Press is confronted with the seedier side of society as he uncovers prostitution and drug-trafficking in his quest to clear his colleague’s reputation. In addition, the novel explores the failure of academia to ensure freedom of ideas is upheld. A good bit of time is spent in discussion of the failure to preserve the right of expression. Press and his love interest, Mara, are the main characters in this novel. There is a lot of backstory for the two that unfolded in the first two books, but the reader doesn’t really need it to read this book. Supporting characters are not as developed as I would have liked, and to be honest I never really engaged with the story or the people involved. For the literary and music minded, there are lots of references to classic works.
A quick read, Murder in Disguise was just an okay read for me. But others would disagree. Be sure to check out their reviews.
Audience: adults.
To purchase this book, click HERE.
(Thanks to LitFuse for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine.)
He is a reclusive history professor with musical hallucinations, she a headstrong professor of religion, a converted Wiccan. Earlier, they solved a campus murder, but now police say they formed two-thirds of an illicit love triangle with a newly-murdered female colleague and they’re probably guilty of her murder. A leak of the alleged scandal to the college administration threatens their jobs. Their desperate attempt to prove themselves innocent of the triangle and the murder plunges them into a tangle of unsavory corporate relationships among college trustees. And it puts their lives in danger from a mysterious criminal organization that seems to have tentacles everywhere.
Donn Taylor led an Infantry rifle platoon in the Korean War, served with Army aviation in Vietnam, and worked with air reconnaissance in Europe and Asia. Afterwards, he earned a PhD in Renaissance literature and taught literature at two liberal arts colleges. His publications include three suspense novels, one historical novel, and a book of poetry. He lives near Houston, TX, where he writes fiction, poetry, and essays on current topics.
It was a bad day to find a corpse on campus. Preston Barclay is a self-made recluse (and he likes it that way). Teaching college history allows him time to grieve the loss of his pianist wife and find relief from the musical hallucinations that have been playing in his head since her death. But when he and headstrong colleague, Mara Thorn, discover the body of another instructor on campus, Press’s monotonous solitude is shaken up. When the preliminary evidence singles out Press and Mara, they must take some chances, including trusting each other, to build their own defense by bending the rules just a little bit. They form an unlikely alliance to stay ahead of the police, the college’s wary and incompetent administration, and whoever is trying to get away with murder. Or else they both might end up unemployed, behind bars, or worse…
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