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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | PRZS3000000438 | PR6064.E417 D43 1993 | Open Access Book | Creative Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Described by Oxford scholar and crime fiction reviewer T. J. Binyon as 'probably the best crime novel set in a women's college since Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night' Janet Neel's Death Among the Dons is set in Gladstone College, an all-female, almost forgotten outpost of London University. The college is living beyond its means, its buildings crumbling and its books not balancing. The Warden is found dead in mysterious circumstances and then a knife-wielding prowler claims three victims in the college grounds. Policeman John McLeish, now a Superintendent and back in uniform, is also a father. His wife Francesca, looking for a gentle way of resuming her career after motherhood, agrees to help Dame Sarah Murcheson sort out the problems of Gladstone College, only to find it could be the death of her.
Reviews 2
Publisher's Weekly Review
Neel, whose Death of a Partner was shortlisted for a Golden Dagger Award, turns in another solid performance with her tale of intrigue at Gladstone College, a women's school outside London. Gladstone's warden, Dr. Judith Symonds, dies in bed, apparently a victim of her own imprudent mixing of Valium and alcohol. Dame Sarah Murchieson is recruited by school director Sir Neville Allason to take over the college, whose finances are as dilapidated as its buildings and whose staff is ``rent by schism.'' Sarah, who is well supplied with tact (she holds her tongue when Neville-- once her lover, and more recently the deceased's--turns his attentions to a married member of Gladstone's faculty) and spunk (she was in the Resistance in occupied Holland), hires civil servant and young mother Francesca Wilson as bursar to clean up finances. They are making some headway when a series of attacks on women walking on campus brings Francesca's husband, Police Superintendent John McLeish, onto the scene as well. By firmly establishing each character as a believable individual, Neel effectively and with plenty of humor draws the reader into the complex and often secret dynamics of Gladstone's small community. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Neel continues the hallowed tradition of the academic mystery with this byzantinely plotted whodunit set at Gladstone College, a stuffy, all-female institution in London. The school is a seething cauldron of motive and opportunity: plans are afoot to admit males; a new warden has taken over, and the assistant warden resents being passed over for the top spot; the previous warden, meanwhile, may have committed suicide or may have died of an overdose. Mix in a potential rapist and an attack on a professor, and you've got the makings of murder. Enter Francesca McLeish, the wife of a London police department detective, who takes a position as assistant bursar at Gladstone. As events on campus unfold in ever-more-sinister ways, Francesca joins forces with her husband and the new warden to expose the culprits. This is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy a bit of civility and decorum with their mayhem, but don't mistake it for a Christie-like, one-dimensional puzzle. Neel creates real characters who could easily exist outside the sheltered world of a stuffy London college. ~--Wes Lukowsky
