Sounds of Murder [Paperback]

Patricia Rockwell (Author), Scott Saunders (Cover Design)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2010

When Psychology Professor Pamela Barnes discovers her department's star researcher strangled to death in the computer lab, she's determined to find out who did it. Will an accidental recording of the murder allow Pamela to use her expertise in acoustics to identify the killer? A unique cozy mystery--set in the world of academia and high-stakes research--full of excitement, humor, and romance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rockwell's first mystery is well crafted and lots of fun. . . . Her timing is impeccable, her plot jumps along, and the killer is well hidden until the final denouement. . . . a great read for a summer day."

--Midwest Book Review --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Patricia Rockwell has spent most of her life teaching. From small liberal arts colleges to large regional research universities-and even a brief stint in a high school, her background in education is extensive. She has taught virtually everything related to Communication-from a fine arts speech-theatre orientation to more recently a social science research approach. Her Bachelors' and Masters' degrees are from the University of Nebraska in Speech and her Ph.D. is from the University of Arizona in Communication. She was on the faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for thirteen years, retiring in 2007. Her publications are extensive, with over 20 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, several textbooks, and a research book on her major interest area of sarcasm, published by Edwin Mellen Press. In addition to publications, she has presented numerous papers at academic conferences and served for eight years as Editor of the Louisiana Communication Journal. Her research focuses primarily on several areas of communication: deception, sarcasm, and vocal cues. Dr. Rockwell is presently living in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband Milt, also a retired educator. The couple have two adult children, Alex and Cecilia. SOUNDS OF MURDER is her first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Cozy Cat Press (April 17, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984479503
• ISBN-13: 978-0984479504
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,584,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia Rockwell is the author of the Pamela Barnes acoustic mystery series. This amateur sleuth solves crimes using her knowledge of sound. The series includes SOUNDS OF MURDER, FM FOR MURDER, VOICE MAIL MURDER, STUMP SPEECH MURDER, and MURDER IN THE ROUND. Her new series, Essie Cobb senior sleuth, features a 90-year-old assisted living facility resident who solves mysteries. The books in this series include BINGOED, PAPOOSED, and VALENTINED.

Dr. Rockwell has spent most of her life teaching. From small liberal arts colleges to large regional research universities--and even a brief stint in a high school, her background in education is extensive. She has taught virtually everything related to Communication--from a fine arts speech-theatre orientation to more recently a social science research approach. Her Bachelors' and Masters' degrees are from the University of Nebraska in Speech and her Ph.D. is from the University of Arizona in Communication. She was on the faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for thirteen years, retiring in 2007.

Her publications are extensive, with over 20 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, several textbooks, and a research book on her major interest area of sarcasm, published by Edwin Mellen Press. In addition to publications, she has presented numerous papers at academic conferences and served for eight years as Editor of the Louisiana Communication Journal. Her research focuses primarily on several areas of communication: deception, sarcasm, and vocal cues.

She is presently living in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband Milt, also a retired educator. The couple has two adult children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sound Mystery July 9, 2010

By Janice M. Hidey

Format:Paperback

Pamela Barnes is a professor in psychology who specializes in speech and sound is at Grace University. Kent, her graduate assistant, finds Dr. Charlotte Clark dead in the computer lab, strangled by a cord. Though Clark brought in lots of grant money to the university, she was not popular with the others in the department but Barnes wants to make sure her murderer is found.

Dr. Barnes had heard Clark arguing with the department head Mitchell Marks before the murder and Clark placed a mysterious photo of a former student in Marks mail slot the day she was murdered. The woman arrives and leaves crying. Barnes cannot imagine Marks murdered Clark but thinks it has to be someone in the psychology department. The police are not working as quickly as she would like so she starts investigating.

When the computer lab is again opened, Pamela goes back in to see if she can find something the police may have missed. She wonders if Clark had turned on the sound toggle while she was working at the computer. She checks the main computer and realizes the sounds of the murder had been recorded probably accidentally pushed by Clark in the midst of the struggle. Pamela listens to it and makes a copy. When later than evening Pam tells her husband, Rocky about it he is concerned and tells her to leave the investigation to the police.

Pamela does take the disc to the police but keeps a copy and with her persistence records sounds to find out what is making that non-human clicking sound in the recording that she cannot identify. This leads to a confrontation and the murderer is uncovered.

This book covers the fascinating inner workings of a university dealing with tenure issues, cutbacks, grant money and strong personalities. Rockwell has written interesting characters and I want to read more books about Professor Pamela Barnes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Premise for a Crime. September 24, 2011

By L. Rigod

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was really interested to begin reading this book. I am one of the cozy mystery readers that enjoy cozies because I can learn something new from the book. I was not disappointed in the beginning. The sleuth is a Professor of Psychology specializing in Sound acoustics. The sleuth begins with a seminar on sound and interpretation. I really can see how this would solve a mystery.

The problem was there was the murder and then too much of the book dwelled upon how no one really liked the victim. To me, it was carried too far. I mean, Margarita wakes? Now, I love Psychology and was hoping that the good Dr. Barnes would venture that way, but only at the end, does she use her given and learned talents in these fields.

I was surprised by the killer but not the 'why' of the crime. I had that figured out in chapter one. I think that this series could be a winning one but I ask Dr. Rockwell, please put more of the talents of our sleuth into the detection of the crime.

I have purchased the next in the series and do expect to be blown away and write a five-star review. The premise is terrific and I do like Dr. Barnes and her family and co-workers.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great debut cozy, bodes well for a 2nd in the series July 30, 2010

By Betty Gelean

Format:Paperback

Patricia Rockwell is an academic with an extensive portfolio of publications, journal articles, textbooks and presentations. She holds a doctorate in Communications. This is her first book of fiction. With her solid and prolific background in academics, it would be easy to think the transition to fiction might be a bit weighty, or overly academic. This is absolutely not true of Dr. Rockwell. She has written a cozy novel in an untapped area of the study of sound waves that is very definitely readable. I chose to review this book because I'm fascinated by all kinds of science, and love cozy mysteries. I was not disappointed.

"Sounds of Murder" does take place in a university, and sprinkled throughout, the politics of a university come dashing through. But this is a murder mystery set in a faculty dealing with communications. As in all cozy mysteries, there are several interwoven characterizations. Anyone who has gone to, or worked in, a college or university will appreciate the diverse personalities they find there.

Our heroine, Pamela Barnes, specializes in Acoustics, the study of sound waves, voice patterns, and basically anything to do with sound. She teaches this at a graduate school in the university. On this night, she has a three-hour class and has just made sure that her student assistant, Kent, has locked the Communications Lab before they go to class, since the school is usually empty at this time of the evening and there is a great deal of very expensive equipment in there.

The author's characters range from meek to extreme behaviour. Dr. Charlotte Clark is one of the latter and very quickly the story takes off with a terrible argument between Dr. Clark and the Head of the Department, Mitchell Marks. Pamela has just come into the front of the main office to get her mail and the strength of the argument is coming right through the Head's office door. She can hear it, although she can't hear the words, When she hears Charlotte getting louder as she approaches the door, she hurries out of the office and into class.

On leaving at the end of the evening, Kent is sent to double-check that the door to the lab is locked. Next thing she hears is Kent running and calling her to come to the lab, he has found the door wide open and a body slumped at one of the special computers. Now our story is really underway as police arrive and question them both together and separately, only with a brief pause for Pamela to call her husband Rocky to let him know she would be late.

From this point on, the action begins to build, everybody seems to have a motive of some type, but as well, we are witness to all Pamela's thought processes, which I found to be unique and fascinating. Her mind goes over and over but jumps to inane things in between just as a person who has met with trauma would do. Here I began to have the feeling of being inside her head, a remarkable piece of storytelling. This happens a few times as the investigation moves along, but the reader almost always knows what Pamela herself is thinking. Though this may be anticipated to be monotonous, in reality it most certainly is not; there is even some humor to be found in this method. One thing she is thinking is that she may well be the only person available with the expertise to possibly solve this case or at the very least present compelling evidence, because she has a small sound byte on a CD that she knows she is the most likely to be able to analyze it.

Meanwhile, Rocky and the lead Columbo-like Detective Shoop both try to stop her from "sticking her nose in" but she just can't leave it alone. This is a well-written mystery, with some unique features. I do enjoy finding cozies or any book that has something new and different. This appears to be the first in a series, and I certainly hope so. There is humor and pathos, surprises, lots of interaction of characters, and a most tempting house to come home to. Regardless of the murder and political academia, this is essentially a warm friendly story, a perfect cozy to curl up with.