Maggie Barbieri, Murder 101

Murder 101

Maggie Barbieri

St. Martin's, Nov 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 0312355378

NYPD Detectives Wyatt and Crawford enter the office of English Professor Alison Bergeron as she and her best friend Maxine Rayfield discuss killing her ex-spouse as he drives a BMW while she rides the train since her car was stolen. Crawford informs her that they found her vehicle with the body of student Kathy Miceli in the trunk of her car. Alison pukes on the shoes of the nicer cop Crawford before fainting while his partner wants to take her downtown for some intense questioning.

Crawford decides to tail Alison and not just because he likes how she looks; she is his only tenuous lead. Max persuades Alison that she is the prime suspect though no motive surfaces and that they must not allow NYPD especially that hunk Wyatt to railroad her while Wyatt looks at Alison's ex-husband as the culprit because he has learned about her ex-husband's affair with the deceased. Struggling to grade the Shakespeare class papers and ignore her attraction to Crawford as she does not trust men to remain faithful, Alison prays for a police rescue when the killer abducts her.

Though the dueling investigations (amateur and professional) take a back seat to the characters' reactions to the homicide, fans will enjoy this academic whodunit due to the four prime characters. Crawford is a fascinating protagonist who has two conflicting reasons to trail the professor while Alison has two solid reasons to avoid the cop. Throw in the romance between crusty Wyatt and Max on top of a delightful final relationship twist between the main pair leads the audience to a fun tale in which the coupling supersedes the mystery.

Harriet Klausner