Bad Chemistry [Hardcover]

Nora Kelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1994

The death of a Cambridge chemist brings historian-turned-sleuth Gillian Adams into an investigation in which the mixture of modern science and mores with time-honored tradition proves volatile. By the author of My Sister's Keeper.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vancouver history professor Gillian Adams and Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector Edward Gisborne meet in Cambridge, England, for what becomes a working vacation after chemist Wendy Fowler is found dead in a university laboratory. Clever and unashamedly ambitious, Wendy was resented by some of her male academic colleagues; her habitual brusqueness put off even the women with whom she did volunteer work at the local pregnancy counseling center. Loaned to the Cambridge constabulary, Edward looks for a killer who clearly had inside knowledge of the lab's setup. Meanwhile Gillian, whose friend Bee Hamilton also works at the counseling center, keeps those there apprised of the investigation, which heats up when a teenage client is found in a shallow grave in woods not far from Bee's home. While Kelly ( My Sister's Keeper ) effectively integrates her feminist ideas with the story line as her levelheaded sleuths work towards a solution, most readers will probably wish for a few more puzzle crumbs along the way: until late in the game, the biggest clue is only that someone opposed to the main cast's accepted politics could have commited the dirty deeds.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gillian Adams, a history professor in Vancouver, returns to Cambridge University, where she got her Ph.D. and met her lover, Edward Gisborne, now a Scotland Yard inspector. Edward's just finished a grisly child-murder case and is looking forward to spending time with Gillian, but his plans are thwarted when an attractive, ambitious chemist is murdered at Cambridge, and the local constabulary asks Edward to help investigate. The murder victim was a volunteer at the Pregnancy Information Service, along with several of Gillian's friends from her university days, so Gillian naturally has plenty of reasons to apply her own amateur sleuthing skills to the case. Kelly's given herself plenty to work with here: illicit love affairs, steamy sex, academic intrigue, hard-core feminism, abortion clinics, jealousy, rivalry, ambition, and murder. But all these terrific ingredients never quite get stirred into the right mix, and the result is a mildly entertaining mystery. Fans of mysteries set in academia, or of previous Gillian Adams adventures, including My Sister's Keeper (1992), may enjoy this one, but it's a marginal recommendation only. Emily Melton

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: St Martins Press (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312109342
• ISBN-13: 978-0312109349
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,367,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly a mystery, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bad Chemistry (Hardcover)

While I initially found this story entertaining, I have to argue that it really isn't a mystery at all. It's more of an illustration of the feminist politics of the characters. In other words, the killer is exactly who you expect it to be. I kept waiting for an entertaining twist and there was none. And even as a feminist, I found myself unable to swallow all the pronouncements of certain characters.

Don't read this for the mystery. Read it, if at all, for the politics. They are the real reason for this novel's existence. And don't say you weren't warned.

5.0 out of 5 stars A great and fun mystery!, January 3, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bad Chemistry (Missing Mysteries) (Paperback)

Nora Kelly is a native Easterner who is now living in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she teaches part time. She has been involved in writing her Gillian Adams mysteries for several years, and has won the 1999 Arthus Ellis Best Novel Award awarded by the Canadian Crime Writers Association.

Using a University as a backdrop, where old buildings reek of sinister motives; strange chemicals are used in obscure experiments; and cutthroat individualists fight over diminishing federal and private grant funds is a recipe for intrigue and mayhem. Gillian Adams is a department head of the History Department at the University of the Pacific Northwest. Her boyfriend, Edward Gisborne, is a Deputy Chief Inspector for Scotland Yard. Both have demanding jobs and have let their relationship wind around their crushing schedules. Gillian is in Cambridge, England on Sabbatical, thinking about her next career move, when the murder of Wendy Fowler, a research fellow strikes uncomfortably close. Gillian's friends are involved in a nonprofit organization called the Pregnancy Information Service where Wendy volunteered. It is up to Gillian and Edward to sort out the murderer's motives, and to tie the murderer in with the PIS office:

" So you think he might have burgled the PIS office?' Irene said. To steal the cards? That's silly. What good would it do?' Maybe he wanted to see what we said about other doctors. Maybe he thought he could sue if he had the evidence.' No. But he might have taken the book. Who else would? He probably thought the information he wanted was in it. Or something else he could use against us. And then he took the money so we'd think it was an ordinary burglary."

Not only does Kelly create a labyrinth of clues; her characterizations have the reader seriously considering almost every character she introduces as a suspect. Her particular form of feminism is well articulated through the characters, and their relationships strike a chord in the reader. Wendy Fowler is pregnant, and when a second body turns up that is connected to the PIS, Gillian and Edward take the reader through a well constructed plot that keeps the pages turning.

Bad Chemistry is great fun and is a cozy that will be embraced by the mystery reading world.

Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer