A Bond with Death: A Professor Sally Good Mystery [Hardcover]

Bill Crider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2004 | Series: Professor Sally Good Mystery

Sally's husband has been dead for eight years; his remote ancestor, the witch Sarah Good, died on the scaffold in Salem more than four hundred years ago. Yet the president of Sally's college is afraid the story will reflect on the institution.

Sally is annoyed. Sarah Good wasn't her ancestor; she was the forbear of Sally's dead husband. That the president of a college should be concerned that one of his faculty might be thought the descendant of a woman who was hanged as a witch four hundred years ago seems ludicrous to her.

In one way, the president has reason to be concerned. Their town is in a very conservative part of Texas---a considerable number of citizens are trying to get the Harry Potter books removed from the library. Now a bond issue for the college is coming up, and nothing is more important to the president than to get it approved.

Returning to her office, Sally learns from her boyfriend that "the Garden Gnome" has been murdered. The Garden Gnome (so-called because he looks like one) was consistently honored by the students, who gave him the worst evaluations any faculty member had ever received, and Sally was eventually effective in securing his departure. Nor does it help her that he was one of the staunchest opponents of the bond issue. With the aid of the Internet, most of the local population have convinced themselves that Mrs. Sally Good and "Witch" Sarah Good are practically one and the same---maybe Sally is a reincarnation of "her" ancestor. And you know what witches can do.

With the help of her lover, Jack, and some complications thrown up by a covey of wiccans ("No, no, it's a religion. We are not witches"), Sally may avoid being hanged, but it certainly looks like she is in real trouble.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Crider's third Sally Good mystery (after 2002's A Knife in the Back), the funny, pedantic, unlucky-in-love English professor, whose late husband was related to 17th-century Salem "witch" Sarah Good, must prove she's innocent of the murder of Harold Curtin, a small, dirty, bearded sot nicknamed the Garden Gnome, who'd been fired from his tenured position at Hughes Community College. Universally despised and the only teacher ever to fail his student evaluations, Curtin was out to make trouble over a much needed bond issue for the college. He had enlisted the "Mothers against Witchcraft" to bring down Dr. Good, whom he blamed for his dismissal. Extracts from the transcripts of the 1692 trial of Sarah Good for witchcraft provide a fascinating counterpoint to the present-day action. Suspects include a whole school of red herrings. Unfortunately, the actual murderer turns out to be a minor character barely mentioned until the denouement—which will disappoint puzzle solvers engaged in an otherwise amusing, well-written and inventive tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Dr. Sally Good, English department chair at Hughes Community College, is called to the president's office to explain an e-mail sent to the entire college community and town accusing Sally of being a relative of a witch hanged at Salem more than 400 years ago. With a bond issue in the works, President Fieldstone is worried about the reputation of the college. Deciding no one will take the e-mail seriously--and besides, the accused witch was her husband's relative, not hers--Sally returns to her office, where she learns that former English professor Harold Curtin is dead, maybe murdered. Unfortunately, the incompetent, unlikable Curtin blamed Sally for his enforced "retirement," so Sally is one of a long list of possible suspects. Sally solves the crime, but not before her job is threatened, Mothers against Witchcraft picket her house, and she almost loses her life. This third book in genre veteran Crider's series contains interesting bits of history, a likable and sensible heroine, and details of community college life and politics that effectively support the story. Sue O'Brien
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (October 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312322968
• ISBN-13: 978-0312322960
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and brought up in Mexia (that's pronounced Muh-HAY-uh by the natives), Texas, went to college at The University of Texas and North Texas State University, and taught high school and college classes for many years. In 1992 I retired as Chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts at Alvin Community College, in Alvin, Texas. I'm married to the lovely Judy, and we have two grown children, Angela, who's an attorney in San Francisco, and Allen, who's in the music business in Austin. Other than that, I'm a pretty boring guy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent mystery, October 23, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Bond with Death: A Professor Sally Good Mystery (Hardcover)

At Hughes Community College in Texas, President Fieldstone is upset with English Literature Professor Sally Good because the instructor's deceased husband happened to be related to the Salem witch Sarah Good, declared a witch over four hundred years ago. However, with the assault on the Potter books and a bond referendum on the ballot box pertaining to the college, Fieldstone worries that the nebulous link will reflect badly on the school in the eyes of its conservative donors and voters.

Irritated over the absurdity of the situation, Sally next learns from Jack Neville that former English Professor Harold "The Garden Gnome" Curtin was murdered. Sally as the English chair forced Harold to leave because he treated students like "ants in his domain". Sally also finds out that the Internet, home of misinformation, has informed local voters that Professor Sally Good is Witch Sarah Good using her powers of evil to probably kill the Gnome. To avoid burning at the stake by Fieldstone, Sally must uncover who killed the disliked professor.

At first brush, readers will think along the lines of Sally that the hoopla over her indirect link to a four century dead in-law is ridiculous. However, Bill Crider lampoons the misinformation and disinformation that flows as freely as information on the Internet into a solid rumor spreading mechanism that paints quite a picture. The heroine realizes she must clear her name by finding the culprit; she may not be dealing with dark forces, but this is worse as she struggles with the Internet and Fieldstone. Mr. Crider provides a terrific academic amateur sleuth that satirizes the Internet at a time when the presidential race depends on disinformation.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment., March 13, 2005

By 

Lorraine Talbot (Winsted,, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Bond with Death: A Professor Sally Good Mystery (Hardcover)

This 3rd entry in the Sally Good series is a disappointment. The community college setting is still fine and Dr. Good effective as head of a department with a jealous fellow teacher who believes she should have been given the position. The premise that a modern college president would expect a teacher to renounce witchcraft because her late husband's ancestor was hung as a witch is 1692 is tenuous.

The disappointing aspects are that the killer is so sketchily referred to in the beginning of the book that when the revelation comes at the end, the reader is thinking, `who's that?'

Both the dust jacket and amazon's description referred to Sally's fellow teacher, Jack, as her lover, so I kept watching for Jack to break up with Vera, and realize he was still interested in Sally. It never happened. While it would enhance my reading pleasure if this amateur female protagonist had a romantic interest, the bad part of her not having one was that she had no backup when she inevitably found herself in the usual `perils of Pauline' situation.

Henceforth, I'll stick with Bill Crider's excellent Sheriff Dan Knowles series with it's colorful and dependable folks in Clearview, TX.