Lynn C. Miller, Death of a Department Chair

Death of a Department Chair

Lynn C. Miller

University of Wisconsin Press, October 2006, $24.95, 256 pp.

ISBN 0299219747

On a Monday morning at Austin University, the chairman of the Department of Literature and Rhetoric, Isabel Vittorio is found murdered in her office with her clothes ripped off leaving her nude. Miriam Held, who lost to Isabel an election to be the chair, is the number one suspect for a number of reasons. She had an affair with the victim that ended badly; she is writing a book (started before Isabel was murdered) about the death of a department chair; and Isabel who agreed to hire a brilliant and well known African-American reneges on a promise to Miriam because she wants her lover hired instead.

In addition to these marks against her, someone is trying to frame Miriam as the killer. A file filled with false memos was found in her desk, as was Isabel's diary. Miriam never saw either one of these documents. As the police place her under a greater scrutiny, she and friends are determined to find out who is trying to frame her, and they expect this knowledge will lead them to the real killer.

Many academic mysteries like DEATH OF A DEPARTMENT CHAIR are literary in style and scope. This tome is not only a mystery, but a look at political infighting that goes on behind closed doors, between dogmas that insist they are right and never listen to the opposite viewpoint. The protagonist is a strong willed woman who doesn't understand why someone is trying to make her look like a killer, yet the victim steals the show through her diary entries. The who-done-it is superb, and readers will have a hard time figuring out who the killer is.