Book Review: Burying Ariel

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Burying Ariel     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Gail Bowen
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character   Academic
Series: Joanne Kilbourn # 7
McClelland & Stewart, May 2001, $24.95, 264 pp.

In Regina, Canada, everyone associated with the university is stunned to learn that someone killed twenty-seven year old Professor Ariel Warren. The culprit stabbed the popular political science lecturer in the back.

The police have several suspects from a professor previously accused of sexual harassment to Ariel's boy friend radio star Charlie D. The campus' militant women feel Ariel is the victim of a male animal and use her vigil to further their goals rather than as a memorial to the deceased. Realizing the campus is divided and turning ugly, Professor Joanne Kilbourn who has known Ariel for two decades begins to make her own inquiries not yet realizing where the danger really comes from.

BURYING ARIEL is an exciting academic murder mystery that provides insight into extreme campus politics. Readers will take pleasure from the story line though they will wonder how the vigil turned ugly so quickly. The characters seem genuine especially Joanne, her family, and most of the political science department. Though the killer's motive seems stretched, the audience will find the latest Kilbourn Canadian who-done-it to be a delightful amateur sleuth tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner