Customer Reviews

Sham Rock (Notre Dame Mysteries (Numbered))

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Because of the recession, financial adviser David Williams returns to his ala mater Notre Dame to visits his son attending classes there and to inform the university's administration he cannot afford to finance a new building as he promised. As David visits, another alumnus sends to the school's associate archivist a box filled with newspaper clippings and various other sundry including the confession of a murder and burial of the victim, another student from the class of 89 Timothy Quinn, who had vanished two decades ago.

The school leadership, having used retired private investigator Philip Knight to work sensitive cases before, asks him to look into the Quinn situation. With the help of his brother Catholic Studies Professor Roger Knight Philip begins his inquiry starting with a look back to 1989 when the "Trinity" of David, Timothy and Patrick were rivals and buddies. Upon digging up the corpse, the siblings realize the case is much more convoluted than they expected.

The latest Knight brothers Notre Dame investigative tale (see The Green Revolution) is one of the better entries in what is a fun lighthearted private detective series. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the archivist opens the box and never slows down as Philip with Roger assisting him begins the inquiry into what happened in 1989 only to find a much bigger case on their hands. Ralph McInerny, who died in January, provides a strong Fighting Irish academic mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I won't give you a synopsis of the story; you can get that from Publisher's Weekly. I picked up this book off the new book shelf at the library, and didn't look into it enough to realize it is the 13th book in a series. As I read this book, I felt as though I was at a class reunion of a school I had never attended with people I had never met. There really wasn't too much of a plot; but a murder was committed and if you can't easily identify the killer you probably don't read very many mysteries. But for a Saturday afternoon by the pool or at the beach, it was a fast easy read.