Customer Reviews

Tropic of Murder (Nick Hoffman Mysteries)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
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2 star:		(1)
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"Mysteries wrap things up too much," a character states to Nick Hoffman, the professor turned detective in "Tropic of Murder," the sixth novel in the series by Lev Raphael. Hoffman would have found that ironic, since the loose ends of his life haven't been tied up for several books.

After run-ins with murderous students, professors and administrators at the State University of Michigan, Hoffman finds himself moving from the world of Ph.Ds to PIs as a way to escape the snakepit of academic politics with its internecine backstabbing and hypocrisies. A change of chairmanships and the prospect of introducing a Whiteness Studies program encourages Hoffman and his partner, Stefan, to escape over the Spring break at a Club Med resort in the Caribbean.

Alas, rest and relaxation turns out to be illusionary. Hoffman hoped to flee a potential client, a graduate student whose politically powerful in-laws may be behind some hate crimes at SUM. But tropical breezes, good food and pampered attention from the Club Med employees is spoiled when Nick finds that no matter how far you run, trouble will follow.

Raphael is an atypical mystery writer. His interests are wide-ranging, with a shelf of literary short stories, non-fiction (including a book on Edith Wharton) and even self-help books to his credit. His recent novel, "The German Money," drew on his family's experiences during and after the Holocaust, and themes from his oeuvre show up in his mysteries as well.

"Tropic of Murder" is a series whose full flavor is released by starting with an earlier book that sets the latest plot threads in motion. I recommend No. 5's "Burning Down the House," which launches the latest chain of events at SUM, but even better would be to start with "Let's Get Criminal," when Hoffman was young, happy, in love, and innocent of the bloody fate in store, and you can take a full measure of pleasure in the loopy events at SUM in its tawdry glory.

As usual, things are in an uproar in Nick Hoffman's St. Univ. of Michigan department. The provost, Merry Ginka, appoints the least likely candidate chairman of the department, bypassing the usual election process. Peter deJonge, a graduate student, has asked Nick to do some "detecting" for him. Nick is thinking about that and he's thinking about whether or not he might be bisexual, as he keeps finding himself susceptible to the attractions of Juno, a flamboyant professor in his department.
Stefen, Nick's pardner, had been planning for them to have a tropical vacation for spring break in March, but decides they need one now and off they go to a Club Med on Serenity, a fictional Carribbean island.
One of the first people to approach Nick on the beach is deJong, the graduate student. He'd learned from Stefan where they were going and had brought his problem with him. Oh, and there are intrigues among the Club Med staff and one of the fellow guests is a hot new writer that Stefen hates and probably envies. There are other colorful characters and eventually a murder.
This, as with the last couple of these Nick Hoffman mysteries, is not a typical murder mystery. It breaks most of the traditions of the genre, the major crime occurs far into the story, the perpetrator is often a surprise and the reader is seldom given enough clues to figure it out for him or herself.
But the book is a stimulating read, very erudite. I usually have an English and a French dictionary hardy. The quotes sprinkled throughout are thought provoking. And a good deal of it is funny, the kind of sauciness that makes me chuckle outloud, all by myself. I recommend this book.

Nick and partner Stefan Borowski head for a Caribbean Club Med to escape academic departmental politics. But, of course, it follows them there, and then there is a murder. Nick, who is a PI manqué, naturally must investigate, especially as he and Stefan find the body and it appears that someone is trying to implicate him.

Not one of Raphael's best. Too many of the characters are one-dimensional, with no clear motivations for their behavior. Plotlines appear and disappear with no resolution. The solution to the mystery comes out of left field, as the murderer, for no apparent reason, decides to divulge all to Nick and then flee. Even WITH a confession, there's no satisfactory motivation for the murder.

And, Lev? While you may not care for Michael Cunningham's work, too much sniping at him in your book looks like professional jealousy. Tone it down.

The Nick Hoffman series is a literary mystery reader's dream: witty dialogue, pungent description, above-board plotting (that is, no cheating on the reader), and two leads with intelligence, insight, and affection. In fact, the relationship of the two is one of the series' best attributes: a mystery in which the romantic protagonists are *convincingly* comfortable (and as entertaining to us as they are to themselves) is surprisingly rare in the mystery world.

I want to add one thing to the plot descriptions in the other reviews:
In this supposed Paradise, Raphael can tell us precisely where a VacationLand's staff-worker is positioned in its hierarchy. He does it with rare wit: sometimes he can corner a character in four words. (The enviable gift of laconic description served Raphael's academic satires* well, and it really blazes forth in "The German Money", where volumes of meaning are encoded, sometimes trapped, in the filial protagonists' relationships.)

Like those actors who can speak volumes with a raised eyebrow, Raphael has a knack for making a paragraph say two pages' worth. Few writers twice as famous can do half as much. Tropic of Murder, like the other Nick Hoffman books and unlike most mystery novels, can be REread with pleasure.

*I worked across the street from Princeton University for 12 years; and God, do I know these people.

Lev Raphael has done it again! His latest Nick Hoffman mystery, number six in the series, is witty, insightful and touching. This time Nick and his partner Stefan try to escape the tribulations and absurdities of petty academic politics for a Caribbean paradise - which turns out to have intrigues of its own. Raphael moves deftly from the academic scene of his previous novels to a luxurious Club Med setting, where murder soon complicates the idyllic escape.

Raphael has a sharp eye and ear. Nick and Stefan come to life in their witty repartee and keen observations of guests and staff in this lush paradise. This novel also has a bittersweet, touching quality that makes one ponder the greater issues of life. This series gets better and better. Bravo!

Rudite and David Robinson

In Lev Raphael's latest in the Nick Hoffman series, the author takes the reader on a journey to a tropic locale. In this setting, Nick and his partner Stefan find themselves searching for answers surrounding increasingly mysterious circumstances.

Raphael's book is so much more than a mere mystery. The typical novel in this genre paints a portrait that is often predictably dull, with a two-dimensional main character that solves some horrid murder and saves the day. But Nick Hoffman is not the typical, banal, cardboard cut-out hero. He is a three-dimensional, complex character, a person with strengths as well as weaknesses. It is impossible not to relate to Nick as he sorts through conflicted emotions, as he works through anger, as he confronts life and death issues, as he lives his life with all of its twists and turns.

Raphael's writing is intelligent, witty, compelling and so darn good that I felt as if I were standing right next to Nick, watching the colorful Club Med guests, tasting various delicacies at the buffet, or holding my breath as a body floats in the pool. Raphael has an uncanny gift for making his readers see, hear, smell, taste and feel all that the main character is experiencing. The words paint a picture so vivid, it is impossible not to get swept away. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and am eagerly awaiting Nick's next adventure.

The academic world at the State University of Michigan is going out of control. As one crisis after another occurs English professor Nick Hoffman and his partner, Stefan, decide it's time to get out of there for a little break. A week at a Caribbean Club Med sounds like just the thing. But the island of Serenity is anything but serene as they find themselves face to face with murder.

Lev Raphael has written a wonderfully amusing, literary mystery full of the craziness of academic politics. The writing is a delight to read, the plot will keep you guessing and the characters come to life. A fun read that will make you want to read the rest in the series if you haven't already.

The story flowes very fast without a confusion of suspects and misleading red herrings. A relief also not to have the main characters, Nick and Stefan unduly harrased as the primary criminal suspects. The story and characters are very easy to relate to with great references to contempory people and events. An excellent book.

The witty and literate Lev Raphael always seems to break the old Yiddish proviso: "You shouldn't 'mix in!' " Anyone who has been to college, on either side of the lecture podium, will remember the ambience and hierarchy so archly portrayed in his Nick Hoffman Mystery series, and will empathize with the intellectual curiosity of the "inquiring mind."
Tropic of Murder enmeshes the familiar characters of Michiganapolis in more Academic power plays [presaging some astonishing cognates in current political maneuvers!], that send our heroes to a tropical Isle in search of peace and lethargy. A kind of Club "Med-ri-cide" interrupts, so Nick and Stefan do indeed "mix in," providing us with another rapid-fire romp. Save yourself a ticket to Bahama; curl up with this Crima-Colada treat.

There's nobody out there who writes academic satire as pointed as Lev Raphael, and this book carries the bizarre doings at State University of Michigan to new heights and new lows.

Raphael's characters aren't caricatures, though, and that's because of the book's emotional depth and the fine writing.
His plots poke fun at the mystery genre while being smart and well-wrought, and puzzling out the solution is as much fun as being entertained by the witty narration.

I loved seeing Nick and Stefan in a different setting for part of the book, and hope that Raphael will occasionally send his sleuths further afield, while anchoring them at the academic snake pit his fans have come to know and love--at least love reading about.