Book Review: Murder at the B-School

Reviewed By: Cheryl - RAM

Murder at the B-School     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Jeffrey Cruikshank
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Police Procedural
Mysterious Press, 2004, 323 pages

Wim Vermeer, descendant of the famous painter, is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School. However, Wim is neither as brilliant as his ancestor nor as famous as his employer. He is a decent, hardworking academic who, because he had the misfortune to specialize in the wrong area (corporate defined-benefit plans) and is not a particularly good researcher, is now gloomily expecting to fail to achieve tenure.

Under these circumstances, Wim is naturally apprehensive when his formidable Dean asks him to represent the school in its relations with the extremely wealthy and powerful parents of a student who has just died under mysterious circumstances. Barbara Brouillard, a Boston police captain, is also investigating the death, and is reluctant to write it off as an accident or suicide.

Win and Barbara sometimes cooperate and are sometimes separated by mutual suspicion. For Wim, the investigations into the secrets behind the student's death were threatening as well as puzzling, as evidence pointed towards his involvement with the student going well beyond the normal relationship between a teacher and a student.

'Murder at the B-School' is a well-written and smoothly plotted mystery of the classic puzzle type. The characters, particularly Win and Barbara, are believable and interesting. The book ends with a hint that Win and Barbara might undertake future investigations together, and I will certainly look forward to reading about them should such sequels be published.

Cheryl - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Cheryl - RAM