Blunt Instrument

Disgraced and unemployable academic Dela, short for Delarobia, has taken over her uncle’s PI business. Her father, a grumpy academic who’s drifting into dementia, railroads her into solving a murder at a small college–a crime that’s two weeks old with no solution in sight from the local police. Oh, what a cast of characters is presented! Conniving academics, drunken faculty wives, smarmy college presidents, Dela’s aged and blind godfather (is he an asset or a complication?), to say nothing of the police force. Dela takes them all on, with an understanding of the situation that comes from her having experienced campus politics first hand, and from a deep, if jaded, comprehension of the human psyche. She doesn’t always see things clearly, but she is smart and dogged. The ending is not exactly just, and somewhat lumpy, but readers learn the truth. What sets this apart from most is that the author, a novice at mysteries, is an accomplished novelist who brings her talent to creating texture and nuance that is not usually found in even the finest genre fiction. Blunt Instrument is a pleasure to read.—Danise Hoover