The title says it all.Naturally, nobody mourns the passing of
Isabel Vittorio, scheming chair of Literature and Rhetoric at
Austin University, which looks an awful lot like the University of
Texas, where Miller (The Fool's Journey, not reviewed) teaches in
the Theatre and Dance Department. Isabel's colleagues are more
shocked than grieved when she's found battered to death in her
office, slumped nude behind her desk. But they aren't all that
shocked, either. As Miriam Held, Isabel's one-time lover and her
recent rival in the election for chair, puts it: "What a hideous
way to begin the week." Miriam tells psychic Daphne Arbor: "This
feels like a trashy movie." No such luck. Instead of over-acting,
or acting at all, Isabel's colleagues, memorable only for their
consensual shunning of heterosexual coitus, merely swan through the
groves of academe without an idea in their heads except for
departmental politics, lovers past and present and the endless
connections between the two. The resulting idyll, draped in
ceremonious prose and punctuated by Miriam's annoying editorial
retrospectives about what she didn't know back in 2003, is less
humane than Amanda Cross and less witty than Lev Raphael, but
otherwise identical to every other collegiate mystery you've ever
read, only more so-except for a muddled ending that supplies less
bang than whimper.The definitive epitaph is supplied by the police
detective: "Please, let's not be academic. (Kirkus Reviews)
In" Death of a Department Chair," protagonist Miriam Held
recounts the events of the previous fall when she was suspected of
killing Isabel Vittorio, the chair of her department and her former
lover. The controversial and contrary Vittorio was, at the time of
her death, attempting to block the hire of a brilliant African
American female professor. Already under siege for her attempts to
increase diversity on campus, Miriam is forced to defend her
reputation and her life. As she searches for the truth, Miriam
amasses evidence that leaves few friends and colleagues free from
suspicion. Both a classic whodunit and a witty satire, "Death of a
Department Chair" dramatizes how communities can create the very
climate of mistrust and paranoia that victimizes them.
General
Imprint: |
Terrace Books
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 1987 |
First published: |
August 2006 |
Authors: |
Lynn C. Miller
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 16mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
256 |
Edition: |
New |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-299-21974-1 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
Genre fiction >
Crime & mystery >
General
|
LSN: |
0-299-21974-7 |
Barcode: |
9780299219741 |
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