Monday, August 29, 2022

Top Ten Tuesday list: Mysteries with an Academic Setting



Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is a School Freebie (come up with a topic that somehow ties to school/education). I am keeping it simple, a list of my favorite books with a school setting.

And here's my list:


Murder is Academic by Christine Poulson

Poulson set her debut novel at St. Etheldreda's College at Cambridge. Cassandra James is a professor of English, and she finds the head of her department drowned in a pool, surrounded by exam papers. In Murder is Academic, in addition to the college setting, we have plagiarism, séances, and the pressures to publish research. And the characters are well-done and believable. The UK title of this book is Dead Letters. Published in 2002. She has published two more books in this series and three books in the Katie Flanagan series.



The Secret Place by Tana French

This is the fifth book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series. The setting is primarily a girls' boarding school in the suburbs of Dublin. The case is the death of a teenage boy who was found murdered, a year before, on the grounds of the girl's school. The action all takes place in one day. The story is told in alternating narratives. The first narrative is from the point of view of a policeman working on the case. The second narrative (in third person present tense) follows the eight girls, boarders at the school, in the year leading up to the crime. Published in 2014.


Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

This novel in the Hercule Poirot series is set primarily at the prestigious Meadowbank School for Girls in England, but the action begins with international intrigue in the fictional country of Ramat. I loved the girls school setting, but the espionage story was a bit too unrealistic for me. Julia Upjohn and Jennifer Sutcliffe, two students at the school, are very good characters, and I liked their letters home which moved the plot along. Julia is clever and notices things, Jennifer is more focused on herself, but together they are a good pair. Published in 1959.


The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

There are three main characters who share the narration of the story. All three are interesting, with very different points of view on life. Clare is an English teacher at a high school; a close friend at work has been brutally murdered. Harbinder Kaur is a policewoman working on the investigation of the death of Ella Elphick, Clare's friend. Georgia is Clare's fifteen-old-daughter, who is a student at the high school that her mother teaches at.  Some of Clare's sections are told via entries from her diary, which does play an integral part in the story. Published in 2018.



Quoth the Raven by Jane Haddam

Quoth the Raven is the 4th book in a 20-book series about Gregor Demarkian, retired FBI agent, living in Philadelphia. This one is set in rural Pennsylvania at a small college, where Gregor has been invited to give a lecture. Halloween is a major event at the college and there will be the annual lighting of the bonfire the same night. The story takes place in the two days before that event; thus this is the perfect book for fall and the Halloween season. I liked the academic setting, and the mix of students and faculty as characters. Published in 1991.



Publish or Perish by Margot Kinberg

This is the first book in Margot Kinberg's Joel Williams series. The setting is academia: a university in Pennsylvania. I know that the academic setting is a competitive one, although I have no first-hand knowledge of this. Williams is an ex-policeman who now teaches in the university's Department of Criminal Justice. There is a good subplot about a group of students investigating the murder. Published in 2008.



A Killing Spring by Gail Bowen

A Killing Spring is the 5th book in a mystery series about Joanne Kilbourn, a political analyst and university professor who gets involved in criminal investigations. The setting is Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. This story begins as the head of the School of Journalism at the university where Joanne Kilbourn teaches is found dead, in embarrassing circumstances. Then a student in Joanne's class complains of sexual harassment and stops coming to class. Published in 1996. 



The Shortest Day by Jane Langton

This is the 11th book in the Homer Kelly series. This story is set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Homer and Mary Kelly are teaching a class at Harvard University. This is a quirky and humorous mystery in an academic setting. Mary is participating in the annual Christmas Revels when a young singer in the event dies in an automobile accident. When other deaths follow, Homer resists getting involved, even though he was once a homicide detective. The author illustrated the story with her own pen and ink drawings. Published in 1995.


Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh

The story starts with the disappearance of a young female college freshman, Lowell Mitchell. The college she attends is in Bristol, Massachusetts, a fictional small town near Boston, Massachusetts. She goes missing on a Friday in early March 1950 after attending a morning class. Once the college dean ascertains that she is missing, the police are called in to investigate. The small police department in Bristol has less resources and less men to assign to the case than a big city police force. The press and the public are soon pressuring them for a solution, and Lowell's distraught parents also come to town. Published in 1952.



A Novena for Murder by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

This is a very cozy mystery starring a nun as an amateur sleuth. Sister Mary Helen has retired at 75 and is sent to Mt. Saint Francis College for Women in San Francisco. Shortly after she arrives the body of a professor at the school is found, following an earthquake. The police blame the wrong person, in Sister Mary Helen's opinion, so it is up to her to find out what happened. The setting in San Francisco is nicely done, and there is an interesting subplot involving Portuguese immigrants who have been helped to enter the US and are now students or workers at the college.




34 comments:

stargazer said...

Great list of books with a school setting! The only one I've read is Cat Amongst the Pigeons, which I enjoyed. As a big Christie fan, it's rare that I don't enjoy her books. Also, I've considered picking up The Stranger Diaries, but never got around to it. Quite recently I discovered Tana French's The Dublin Murder Squat series and I also included one of the books in my Top Ten this week. :-)

Pam said...

I like that you shared a brief background of each book. The only one on the list that I've heard of before is Cat Among the Pigeons, which I haven't had the chance to read yet.

Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/10-of-my-favorite-young-adult-books/

Cath said...

I love a good academic mystery. I've read a couple of these and will be looking into the rest. Margot Kinberg did a blog post about school/academic crime stories recently but I didn't know she'd written one, so I'll definitely look that one up. Great post, Tracy.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have read several and heard of most of the rest. But not the final entry. Gosh, I could do a list of just Megan's books.

Lisa @ The Plain-Spoken Pen said...

So many books I'd love! Mystery is my jam, and I do like an academic setting. I'll have to check these out.

Come see my top ten!

Lydia said...

These books sure do sound interesting!

My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-microhistory-books-worth-reading

Elza Reads said...

Ooooh I loved Cat Among the Pigeons. Such a great Agatha Christie mystery. Thinking of Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers here as well.

I will check out a few of your other books as well, I always enjoy school settings.

Happy TTT!

Elza Reads

Astilbe said...

I chuckled at the title Murder is Academic.

Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!

iloveheartlandX said...

Murder Is Academic sounds like fun, I'll have to look into that one.
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/30/top-ten-tuesday-383/

TracyK said...

Stargazer, I checked out your list, and Dark Academia is a new term for me, I enjoyed reading about that. And I had forgotten that The Likeness by French also had a school setting. The only one in that series I haven't read yet is The Trespasser.

TracyK said...

Pam, I like your list of YA books with an important message. The first two books on your list, We Are Not Free and Code Name Verity sound especially interesting.

TracyK said...

Cath, I like a school setting, and especially with a mystery involved. Margot's Joel Williams series has four books and I enjoyed them all. And since Margot is an academic herself, she knows the higher education setting well.

TracyK said...

Patti, You are right about Megan's books. Of her books, I have only read Queenpin so far, but her newer books, which have all done so well, are in high school settings. I have You Will Know Me on my TBR.

Margot Kinberg said...

First, thank you so much, Tracy, for mentioning Publish or Perish You just made my week! I'm sorry I'm late to this party, but what a nice surprise. And I do love your other choices, too. Gail Bowen, Elly Griffiths, Agatha Christie, Tana French... you can't go wrong with those.

Kay said...

I love a good 'school' setting for a mystery. And I've read at least 3 of these. Also, thanks for reminding me about Margot's Publish or Perish. One I haven't read as yet, but have meant to for quite a while. :-)

Emily said...

A great list! I love mysteries.

Have a great week!

Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2022/08/30/top-ten-tuesday-books-with-a-school-theme/

TracyK said...

Lisa, I used to read mystery novels almost exclusively, but now I mix in some other types of fiction also. Still mostly mystery though.

I liked your list of Books to Read to Your Kids. Reading to children is very important.

TracyK said...

Lydia, thanks for checking out my list. I liked your list of microhistory nonfiction books also. A very interest subject.

Lark said...

Gotta love that academic setting! Cat Among the Pigeons is a fun one. And I loved the Elly Griffiths, too. :D

Lectrice Vorace said...

Hmmm... A Novena for Murder by Sister Carol Anne O'Marie seems really interesting. I'll check that one out. Thanks!

Cindy said...

Nice focus for today's topic. I have not read any of these. Have a great week!

FictionFan said...

Some great choices! Christie, of course, no list would be complete without one of hers. I loved The Stranger Diaries too, and always good to see our Margot on a list!

TracyK said...

It was well deserved, Margot. Publish or Perish was an easy choice. An excellent academic mystery with a good cast of characters.

I had forgotten that Gail Bowen's main character was an academic because the settings and themes vary so much over the series.

TracyK said...

Elza, I limited my list this time to books I had read in the last 10 years (since I had been blogging). I did consider that Gaudy Night has a great academic setting but the last time I read it (more than 10 years ago) I did not like the book as well. I am divided on Dorothy Sayer's mysteries. Some I love, some are so-so.

TracyK said...

Astilbe, I don't know why publishers sometimes decide to change titles when publishing in the US (vs the UK) and vice versa. The original title for Murder is Academic was Dead Letters, which is much more apt. Oh well. And at least it does point towards the setting.

TracyK said...

Iloveheartland, Murder Is Academic is fun and I think you would enjoy it.

TracyK said...

Kay, I like mysteries with school settings, too. I was just wondering why there were not more series with a school setting?

And yes, Publish or Perish would be a good read for you.

TracyK said...

Thanks, Emily. Mysteries were easy for me because that is the majority of what I read, but I was surprised that I did not run into any non-mysteries with that setting.

TracyK said...

Lark, I have read some books in Elly Griffiths' first series too, but I like the newest series best.

TracyK said...

Lectrice, A Novena for Murder was a good read and very interesting. I loved the San Francisco setting.

TracyK said...

Cindy, I enjoyed doing this Top Ten list. I only participate now and then and the School Freebie worked well for me.

I visited your blog and loved your off-topic Top Ten about Just Say No to challenges; I usually overdo challenges.

TracyK said...

Thanks, Fiction Fan. This topic inspired me for some reason. And I liked that I could include older books and contemporary books, although this time there were less older mysteries than usual.

CLM said...

What a great list! I am making a concerted effort to read books I own rather than library books (I periodically make these vows when the piles get out of control) but I did break down and put one of these on hold.

There are several I haven't read and I know my friend Sue Sims who edited the Girls' School Story Encyclopedia and included several adult mysteries will want to see this.
I don't think I own that Christie so have not reread it for years.

TracyK said...

Thanks, Constance. I actually thought I had read more books with academic settings, but those I remember are probably over the last few decades.

I keep making promises to myself to read off my own shelves, and then break down and get more books. There are always new books and new genres to try.