Customer Reviews

A Darker Shade Of Crimson (Ivy League Mysteries)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I ran to the bookstore to pick up a copy of Pamela Thomas-Graham's "A Darker Shade of Crimson" after hearing that it was about black people at Harvard. The book was a quick and fun read that highlighted issues of race, class, and gender in academia while at the same time providing an entertaining plot.

1-There were some inaccuracies in the book---such as a line mentioning "the collected works of William Junius Wilson" of whom I have never heard but who seems to be related to "William Julius Wilson."

2-The use of time was a bit ambiguous in the novel. At moments when I felt three weeks had gone by, she reminded me that only 2 days had gone by.

3-There was a bit too much name-dropping, to the point that I am not sure if people who haven't been to Ivy League schools would feel welcome to the book. I don't think I would.

4-Nikki Chase's relationship with Dante Rosario was not clear and/or believable; it was also annoying.

5-The politics of skin color came out well in the character dialogue of the story but Graham was less successful in handling it in the plot.

6-On a "moral" note I was left with the lesson that African Americans need to be excellent at what they do at all times. However, I decided that Nikki Chase was also someone I did not want to become--a woman working for "success" defined in terms of moving up a social hierarchy and getting approval from others. Success should be INWARDLY driven, determined, and evaluated. Thus, I feel like Nikki Chase is headed for therapy and a drastic mid-life crisis if she continues with the life perspective she has.

Besides all of that though I thought the plot was captivating. The ending for the murder plot was a bit slow and less dramatic than what I was suspecting. But the ending for the Leo-Ella connection plot was surprising. In addition, I found myself laughing out loud during some parts of the book. Most important, the commentary on the compexities of race, gender, and class in academia were informative without being preachy.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick read and who has some interest in the black middle-class or Ivy League environments. Those who don't, I'd refer you to a different novel before I'd refer you to this one.

I wanted to hate this book. My petty cattiness wanted to pick this book apart due to the fact that the author is a glamorous, educated woman with the world at her feet. The green eyed monster aside, I found the book to be readable but not up to the hype that it has been given.

Veronica "Nikki" Chase stumbles over the body of a colleague after a blackout. She then becomes interested in finding out who did it, and why. Along the way there are ex husbands, implied affairs, scandals, and ex boyfriends. Did Pamela Thomas Griffin write this book with Writer's Digest 'Beginnings, Middles & Ends' open on her desk? This book was way too formalistic and predictable.

This section is a spoiler, so read only if you don't mind knowing how the book ends. My complaints: A) The best friend Jess. She was so corny, with her 'slang' laced talk. B) The ex-boyfriend, Dante. What was up with him? Was he the equivalent of a black man's blonde eyed trophy? Was he there so she could have a secondary plot? And since Nikki was so irresistible to every man she met, why would she let this guy push her buttons so? He was callous about her feelings, but it seemed that she spent the eight years he was away thinking only of him. C) The fact that Nikki decided to investigate. What was this - a bad episode of Charlie's Angels? There seemed to be no reason for Nikki to stick her nose into the business of Ella's death. I couldn't get find any motivation behind her search. The two had only just become friends at the time of her death, so there wasn't even any reason to suspect foul play. And less we not forget the tragic mulatto. For crying out loud, this is 2001! This passing issue could play about fifty years ago.

Some people seem to have an issue with the fact that Nikki had no close friends of color except Maggie. Since she was in Boston I found this to be credible.

I did enjoy reading about Harvard and the elite. Since I'll probably never be one of them, it was nice to get a peek at how the other half lives.

Borrow this book from a friend or the library. It is not one to own.

I was surprised at the negative reviews; this is a good book with an authoritative voice. With an entertainment industry throwing us the flimmsiest of plots, this one does fine. I look forward to the next book and appreciate the characterization and the faculty interplay.

Enjoyed this a lot, despite flaws - I agree that the landlady is too much the stereotype "southern Black momma caretaker ", and named Magnolia, yet! (Yes, I know she's named after one of the author's relatives, but real life is never an excuse for stereotypes in fiction; in fiction, if you name a Black woman Magnolia, then let her be a rake-thin, flinty, Calvinist Black woman who wears Chanel suits--if people still wear Chanel suits--and an executive terror on Wall Street--a STEEL Magnolia.) The other truly irksome part of the book was the relationship with the Italian-American boyfriend. This relationship seemed lifted straight from the weaker romance novels -- an annoying, self-satisfied "hero" with no appeal whatever except his looks, and an otherwise intelligent heroine who folds at the knees in his presence -- and yes, again, this does happen in real life, but that doesn't justify doing it in fiction! Other than that: I disagree with the reader who grumbled about its slow pace and lack of action: like many contemporary mysteries, DARKER is in large part about its setting and characters. For example, I enjoyed reading about the heroine's difficult relationship with her department mentor. I enjoyed the tone, beginning with the opening paragraph, which bluntly lays down the "rules" Blacks feel they must follow to survive at Harvard. For me, the mystery/adventure was satisfying but secondary to the exploration of how Blacks deal with a place like Harvard. I've done a lot of work at many colleges and universities and found the portrayal of power relationships and racial relationships (and Harvard hypocrisy) quite convincing. I'll definitely be looking out for this author's next book.

While other reviewers seem to have read the book because it was about a black, or a woman, or Harvard, or because it was written by a black woman from Harvard, I read it because the main character was an economist. And in that respect, I was sorely disappointed.

Nikki Chase has a job in the Economics Department at Harvard, but she uses no economic insights, economic logic, or economic laws to help her figure out the crime. By comparison the "Henry Spearman" series by Marshall Jevons, or the various books by Russell Roberts, all feature protagonists who make use of the laws of economics.

In the Henry Spearman books, such issues as changes in relative prices, opportunity cost, and economic constraints factor in to the solution. Russell Roberts even uses the ghost of David Ricardo, a famous British Classical economist, to tell one of his stories.

But author Pamela Thomas-Graham, despite having been an undergraduate economics major, shows no evidence of understanding anything about economics. It is important that Nikki Chase is a professor, but she could as easily have been in sociology, physics, or basket weaving for the importance that the academic field itself played in the plot. That is, she uses the flexibility allowed in academia to take time off during the day to wander around and check stuff out; in a non-academic position, it would be much harder to do this. However, this ability to wander around campus during the day time is hardly unique to economists.

Likewise, Thomas-Graham's undergraduate experiences have shown through this work. Her heroine carries around a backpack like an undergraduate; I don't know of any professors who do so. A brief case, a stachel, or even a tote bag are more likely devices.
In addition, the lead character is apparently required to write papers for her department head. This is extremely odd. While collaborations certainly exist in academia, I am completely unfamiliar with (indeed shocked at) the idea that a department head can order a junior faculty member to write his articles for him. I doubt that a Harvard department chairman needs a junior faculty member to do so; after all, the Harvard charman got where he is by doing outstanding work in the first place.

Given all that, I found that the book flowed reasonably well. I had no problem sitting down and reading for an hour or two. I was not particularly annoyed by the fairly mild exploration of racial issues (as were some of the other reviewers), and I was only mildly annoyed at the frequent name-dropping. (I confess to not understanding all of the dropped references to locations, brand names, and other things that the author thought important enough to push at me.)

However, by the end, I had no particular interest in whodunit. I didn't care whether the killer was the janitor, the president, the cop, the pizza delivery kid, or even Nikki Chase herself. When the author finally revealed the killer, I was not surprised, shocked, or self-congratulatory. I was merely through with the book.

That said, I did go ahead and read the next book in the series, in the hopes that the author had worked out a few kinks in the first book and the second would be better. And my thoughts on that work are pretty much the same. I doubt I will read anything else by this author.

When I first happened upon this book by a recommendatiion, becaude I am a lover of mystery/interracial romance novels, so when I read this book I thought I would really enjoy the storyline as well as the romance between Nikki and Dante
Big disapointed on both counts. Hard to follow and as far as a romance for the romance of any kind that was mentioned it could have been left out of the book.

In this gripping mystery, Pamela Thomas Graham introduced the world to a new sister sleuth. Graham's characterizations are phenomenal, the writing is flawless, and the storyline is enthralling. I'd encourage anyone looking for a chilling mystery with a thick plot, set in an innovative location to check out A DARKER SHADE OF CRIMSON.

Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Complete review can be found on our website...

Ms. Thomas-Graham did an admirable job for a first novel. I think it's too long by 100 pages and the "mystery" wasn't too dificult to figure out. [Without giving some things way, one immediately knew who was responsible for the budget discrepancies after the first 30 pages.] As for the death of Ella, if you've read enough mysteries, you could have figured that one out, as well. The writing isn't bad; it's breezy without being pedestrian and I learned a few new words. I think it's the plotting that's the problem: lots of useless information about characters; lots exposition about her specialty (economics) that don't move the story along, and several stereotypical characters (Maggie immediately comes to mind along with Isiah).

My central problem: How Nikki reacted every time she came in contact with Dante. It was distracting and unrealistic and in the end, it could have been cut completely from the book. I liked the insights into Harvard (such as they were), but most of those characters came off as stereotypes and nothing in their behavior (words or actions) provided any new or insightful information. As for the antagonist: didn't buy it at all.

At page 260, I jumped to the end because, by then, the story was essentially over. I went back and skimmed through the pages I didn't read and I didn't miss a thing. All that said, I'll read the next book in the series because one book doesn't give an author a chance. And while I think the character of Nikki is pretty bland, maybe the author will give her some "umph" in the next and subsequent books as she develops as a writer.

I picked this book up thinking I'd find nostalgic Cambridge ambiance, but it seemed more name-dropping than evocations of the real locales. Authors' credibility regarding academics also suffers because, among others, I've never heard of tenured faculty telling juniors to write papers for them (the more usual practice may be to get the prof's name ADDED as another author if research was done in her project/lab/funding). Author has a good diversity of characters and good sense of the oppressive academic politics they face while fighting over pennies, at an allegedly liberal university. Maybe that's a reason for the writing to be a bit thick, too. I find rather too much hasty action and happy coincidence than reflective deduction in this story. There's another mystery book I did like--oops, I can't recall its name--where the featured Harvard professor's degree in economics actually helps solve the crime. Author Thomas-Graham may learn that lovingly listing proud academic, etc., credits in her dj bio is the kiss of death for an aspiring popular writer in America (Aaron Elkins no longer does), perhaps by threatening the reader all sorts of -isms rather than skillful writing? or that the story is PC and you'd better like it?

This book was so awful in so many ways that an attempt to fully review it would convey more of a suggestion that it should be read than I am willing to make. This was a real stinker. I made my way through not to find out the "surprise" ending but because I paid for the book. Don't make the same mistake.