The Princeton Murders [Paperback]

Ann Waldron (Author)

Book Description

Series: Princeton | Publication Date: January 7, 2003

Professor McLeod Delaney gets her first course in crime as the hallowed halls of one of the world's great universities offers an unexpected education in murder. At Princeton, English professors are being targeted by an intellectual with a grudge.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; later printing edition (January 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425188205
• ISBN-13: 978-0425188200
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,505,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Perfectly detailed setting, rest of book suffers, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Princeton Murders (Paperback)

I like the occasional mystery, and I know the Princeton campus and surrounding area well, so how could I resist _The Princeton Murders_? I couldn't, but you should. The author does have her Princeton details spot on. Clearly, she spent a lot of time on the campus talking to people to get the setting right. Unfortunately, though, that time seems to have been taken away from writing and plotting.

Some things are small, and should have been caught by a copy editor. A character's name is mentioned as John, but when he's introduced (~40 pages later) his name has changed to George.

A larger problem are the characters. They are mostly 2 dimensional caricatures, distinguishable by only by one extreme characteristic - their Marxism, their ultrafeminism, etc. The students mostly blend together, with the exception of the one clearly meant to be the lead student character. The author refers to many characters by an ever changing array of names - their first name, their last name, a nickname - without rhyme or reason. I had to double check a few times to recall which character she meant. She also introduces a character somewhat late in the game whose sole purpose seems to be to confuse things, but even this is not allowed to flourish, as the character is quickly removed from suspicion.

The plot is rather thin. It's pretty clear to us how the first murder victim was killed, but it takes a while for the characters to figure it out, and the decision to investigate seems forced. The second death is almost an afterthought, and the third is telegraphed pages before we get to it. Worst of all, the author commits one of the great mystery sins - she hides the identity of the murderer from the reader by withholding information we logically should have known. There is much emphasis on the amount of gossip that flies among the group of professors, and indeed, we learn the secrets of characters from other professors spilling them. The reason given for the main murder is exactly the kind of information that would have been gossiped about, and information of a very similar kind was a plot point. In addition, there are a few loose ends. Attempts are made on the main character's life, but left unresolved for no good reason, almost as if they needed to happen to indicate that the main character was Getting Too Close, but then the author couldn't figure out how to reveal who was behind them.

Finally, this is a book that isn't sure what mystery subgenre it wants to live in. The front cover and the back summary seem to clearly mark it as academic mystery, but note the small front cover banner "Faculty Brunch Recipes Included". Indeed they are, all four of them. Four, including the one for mimosas. The book is filled with lavish detail of many meals, but it is only the brunch recipes ones that are included. That seems small for a book that seems intent on having a foot in the cooking mystery subgenre.

In the end, the book occupied a day adequately, but I was very disappointed. If you want to read this, go to the library, borrow it, or (as a last resort) get it used. If Ms. Waldron ever chooses to indulge what appears to be a love of hers, food and restaurants, and produces a book on that subject centered in the same location, I might try her again, but not her mysteries.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Practical value: it has some recipes..., December 20, 2005

By 

Joshua D. Reitano (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Princeton Murders (Paperback)

This is an easy-to-read murder mystery set in Princeton, NJ. A Tallahasse journalist, having won the Pulitzer Prize, is invited to be a guest lecturer at Princeton University for a semester. Almost as soon as she gets there, three professors in the English department are murdered.
This book will mainly be attractive to people who have spent some time in Princeton. It's fun to read about all the local Princeton establishments as the setting through which the plot unfolds. But the plot itself is pretty boring and predictable, and the villain is unconvincing. It also is weird how much time Waldron spends on describing the food being prepared for each meal. There are even recipes in the back. I feel less masculine for having read this.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Gothic Sieve, July 27, 2005

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Princeton Murders (Paperback)

McLeod Dulaney is invited to teach the fall version of the John McPhee course, literature of fact. A Pulitzer Prize winner, she quickly compiles some clippings to apply for the post. Rent in Princeton turns out to be astronomical by Tallahassee standards. McLeod enjoys walking around Princeton where it isn't too hot looking at the Gothic buildings designed by Ralph Adams Cram.

A friend in the English department, (McLeod participates in a good deal of socializing), seems to have food poisoning, is hospitalized, and dies. Another member of the English department dies after a party given by McLeod. Some of the students in McLeod's class decide to investigate the two deaths.

One of the assistant professors interviewed admits that the second dead man had stood in the way of his goal of being granted tenure. McLeod feels that the supposed hardship, teaching in Georgia or Texas, would be a good experience for many of the people she has encountered at Princeton. When there is a third death, that of yet another professor, the borough police take over and McLeod tells her students to terminate their involvement. One member of the faculty remarks that he or she is impressed that students are taking some initiative.

In Firestone Library McLeod is almost squeezed to death in the stacks. Later she realizes that she could have used some books to protect herself. One of the victims had found evidence of plagiarism from Giddings and Bate in a novel about Keats and Fanny Brawne. It turns out that the author could not have committed one of the linked murders for reason she was in New York City. Someone else tells McLeod that at Princeton all rumors get reported, that it is a great gothic sieve.

I will not disclose the ending and ruin the reader's pleasure. This is good storytelling. It is a good device to have an outsider, McLeod, do the Princeton thing. Also, the portrayal of the student investigators is superb.