Murder at the B-School
Jeffrey Cruikshank
Mysterious, Oct 2004, $24.95, 323 pp.
ISBN: 0892967935

The conservative Harvard Business School is one of the most prestigious learning centers in the world; so no one could imagine a murder occurring there. Yet that is what happened to student Eric MacInnes, a member of a very wealthy family. The lad somehow entered a locked area where a whirlpool was located and someone knocked him over the head killing him. Trying to avoid bad PR and wanting to keep on the good side of the MacInnes kin, Dean Bishop appoints Assistant Professor Wim Verneer as liaison between the college and the family.

Wim is shocked to hear rumors that he had an affair with Eric. Police Captain Barbara Bouillard hears the same gossip, which makes Wim a suspect. E-mail proves that Eric and Wim communicated, but the professor denies this ever happened. Things turn worse for Wim when he meets and goes to dinner with Eric's sister Libby; not long afterward she is found strangled to death. Wim knows that someone is framing him. He begins his own enquiries that lead to Upstate New York and Vieques off eastern Puerto Rico.

MURDER AT THE B-SCHOOL is a well-written, exciting police procedural and amateur sleuth tale. At times adversaries and at times allies, the captain and the professor make inquiries from different perspectives, but draw the same conclusions. They make excellent partners, who deserve co-featuring in future mysteries. Jeffrey Cruikshank will keep his fans satisfied with this winning who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner