Customer Reviews

The Mark Twain Murders

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Skom's first in her three-book series. I read this awhile ago, long before I anticipated the publishing of another Skom mystery, and I was immediately wrapped up in a teriffic whodunnit. I reread this book, and I reccomend the avid mystery-lover jump on it right away!

This auspicious debut mystery will please readers who enjoy an academic or library milieu and abundant literary allusions. The ingenious plot involves a group of eccentric English-department faculty members, a handsome FBI agent, plagiarism, thefts of valuable books from the library, and, of course, Mark Twain. It's a well-written, literate novel, and the two sleuths, amateur and professional, are likable, intelligent characters. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the sequels.

Shocking -- because I read The George Eliot book first, and based on that (even though it's essentially chewing gum for the eyes of TVphobes) I sought out Skom's other two books, and this one is unbelievably amateurish -- not at all as smooth as book number two. Even so, neither of Skom's first two books present her protagonist as much more than a robot. As I said in a comment to a reviewer of the George Eliot book, there is a tremendous temptation to psychoanalyze: has she become an academic because she is unsuited to anything more social? Asberger's syndrome? Definitely obsessive. And not particularly logical in her pursuit of dangerous perpetrators: would you venture into isolated quarters when you know there's a killer around, a killer who is probably after you? ("Who calls me coward?")

A question: does Northwestern University library use the Dewey Decimal System?! Most academic libraries use the LC classification...

A very fun and appetizing read about serious skullduggery at Midwestern U near Chicago, seemingly a take off on Northwestern, where the author teaches. Here we have some very amusing English Dept academics, including a somewhat bitter man-hater, several interesting profs, and the lady professor who really loves Dickens. When a student is karate-chopped in the lady's room, the FBI gets involved with more than book thefts and plagiarism. What struck me was that the FBI did not check the background of the suspects to determine who may have attended karate school in the past, maybe a small quibble but one hopes in real life the FBI would check this out! After the second murder, the situaton gets truly intense, though one feels it should have gotten intense after the first. Still, a top drawer mystery with enough academia, literary allusions, Chicago landmarks, fun, and mystery to keep any reader on his toes, even if the solution seemed a stretch!

This really gets 2.5 stars for me (rounded down to 2), because I was able to finish it, and found it interesting enough, but it really lacked something. I could not get into the characters, and the literary references all over the book were mostly over my head. The mystery was okay, convoluted enough to have an interesting resolution, but the investigation felt amateurish considering one of the protagonists was supposed to be an FBI agent. What's an FBI agent doing investigating the theft of books from a university anyway, even if they are valuable? If he'd been called in after the murders, maybe, but it comes across as really contrived to me. Murder by karate chop to the neck also came across as corny even if it is plausible. And the attempt at romance felt gratuitous and limp. I picked this up because it was supposedly nominated for several awards for best first novel but it was disappointing.