I’m a sucker for stories about Colleges. I worked in the groves of Academia for nearly 40 years so I’m very familiar with the life-style of students and professors and administrators. My favorite story in The Darkling Halls of Ivy is “Rounded with a Sleep” by A. J. Hartley (aka, Andrew Hart) who is the Robinson Professor of Shakespeare at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. The story revolves around the common dilemma of Senior Faculty who resist change and refuse to cater to academic fads. Hartley accurately portrays the pressures on administrators to make the College experience attractive to donors and student enrollment.
I also enjoyed David Morrell’s “Requiem for a Homecoming” where two friends meet and discuss a series of deadly events decades ago. Reed Farrel Coleman’s “An Even Three” delivers the powerful response of a professor to a student complaint. Ian Rankin’s “The Reasoners” explores an college group with a history of death associated with it.
If you’re looking for a solid anthology of mysteries with a College setting, The Darkling Halls of Ivy delivers. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Foreword: Something to Skip — Lawrence Block – 1
- Requiem for a Homecoming — David Morrell – 6
- An Even Three — Reed Farrel Coleman – 17
- Writing Maeve Dubinsky — Jane Hamilton – 30
- Alt-AC — Warren Moore – 51
- Einstein’s Sabbath — David Levien – 62
- The Degree — Joe R. Lansdale – 79
- Rounded with a Sleep — A. J. Hartley – 86
- The Reasoners — Ian Rankin – 106
- Noise Cancellation — Tom Straw – 131
- Monkey in Residence — Xu Xi – 144
- Bertie and the Boat Race — Peter Lovesey – 154
- That Golden Way — Owen King – 169
- With Footnotes and References — Gar Anthony Haywood – 192
- Penelope McCoy — Nicholas Christopher – 205
- Tess and Julie, Jule and Tess — Jill D. Block – 215
- Why She Didn’t Tell — John Lescroart – 228
- Foundational Education — Seanan McGuire – 238
- Goon #4 — Tod Goldberg – 240
- ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS – 274
