Eloquent Blood [Paperback]

Audrey Lavin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2004

Many students hate freshman comp teachers, but enough to murder one? Visiting Professor Mary Beth Goldberg and her fiance Tony, discover bodies of a comp. instructor and a Border collie at Ohios Midfield Campus College (McCollege). With Midfields Sheriff, they investigate English department faculty with motives (blackmail, hatred of dogs, dubious morals) to murder. A fast-moving, lightly satiric, academic mystery.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Daybreak Publishing (December 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974223344
• ISBN-13: 978-0974223346
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,326,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice read, March 4, 2005

By 

Locke E. Bowman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eloquent Blood (Paperback)

A fun read. I especially liked the opening cell phone scene and can see why it won an award from byline's fist chapter contest.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet with a punch, February 11, 2005

By 

I love mysteries (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eloquent Blood (Paperback)

The romance between Mary Beth and Tony is the sweet Midwestern heart of this mystery. Wrapped around it is a merciless send-up of academia, sharp and on target, as well as a layer of truly funny jokes. Highly recommended.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A book with potential, February 28, 2005

By 

Debra Hamel (North Haven, CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eloquent Blood (Paperback)

When a graduate student and a border collie turn up dead in the office of one of Midfield College's English professors, Visiting Professor Mary Beth Goldberg finds something better to do with her time than grading papers. She and her bike-repairing, Bartlett's Quotations-quoting fiancé Tony turn into amateur sleuths to track down a killer among the pompous academics in her department. As it turns out, a number of her colleagues would probably jump at the chance to kill their department chairman, but none of them has an obvious motive for wanting the victim dead.

My reaction to Eloquent Blood was decidedly mixed. On the one hand, I very much like the credible academic environment that the author, an academic herself, has created. Her protagonist, Mary Beth Goldberg, is likeable enough, and as a newly arrived member of Midfield College she could be made to have an interesting outsider's perspective of the College and the small town of Midfield, Ohio. There are occasional well-put turns of phrase. ("You could see that she had been a keen, maybe peachy, young woman with a keen, maybe peachy, hair-do twenty years ago, and she had seen no reason to change it.") And the mystery behind the murders is a decent one.

Unfortunately, there are a number of problems with the text as it stands that will prevent readers from fully enjoying the story. There are occasional logical problems. (At the very beginning of the book, for example Tony discovers the dead bodies and calls Mary Beth to tell her about the murders while en route to visiting her. But she's only two office doors down from the scene of the crime. No one would make a phone call in such a circumstance.) The dialogue can be awkward. ("You're right, Mary-Babe, and I know you'll hate me for being corny at a time like this, but there would be something so fitting in yon literary prof giving voice to that line from Macbeth, 'Out damned Spot! Out, I say!'") There is a dramatic, unprepared for shift in point of view in the middle of chapter eight. What is consistently troubling, however, is that Mary Beth, who has only been teaching at Midfield College for some two months and who is new to the community, is treated as if she has a long history in the area. She is surrounded by very close friends she can have only just met. She is credited with a more intimate knowledge of the campus and its history and denizens than she should have after so brief an acquaintance with them.

With more work, Eloquent Murder could be the start of a solid series of academic cozies. But it does need the work.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece