Book Review: Burning Down The House

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Burning Down The House     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Lev Raphael
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Academic   Amateur Sleuth
Series: Nick Hoffman # 5
Walker, Oct 2001, $23.95, 290 pp.

The State University of Michigan at Michiganopolis is a strange place to be. More so if you are associate professor Nick Hoffman, wanting tenure while knowing that every faction of your department despises you. The administration hates him because he’s a net for trouble. In the years he has been teaching there he has been directly involved in quite a few homicide investigations, beaten up to many times to mention, and been the victim in an arson episode. His name has been featured quite prominently in the papers but publicity involving the University has been negative.

Although Nick is trying to stay out of the limelight he just can’t seem to manage it especially when the voluptuous Juno Dromgoole comes to him for help. Someone is stalking her and sending her threatening phone calls and letters threatening violence towards her. Soon the threats turn nasty leaving them determined to find for themselves who it is conducting this reign of terror.

BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE is an intriguing amateur sleuth novel starring a very likable and vulnerable hero who has the most amazing capacity to give of himself to those he cares about. The antics of the college professor, human beings who are supposed to be an example, are so bizarre that they come across as believable. Lev Raphael has written another fascinating installment in the Nick Hoffman saga.

Harriet Klausner

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