The History of the Mystery

In his Mammoth Encylopoedia of Crime Fiction (2002) Mike Ashley puts academic mysteries in a subcategory of mysteries in which the detective is a professional in his/her field, but is not a professional in a police department or office. From the beginning of crime fiction, there have been amateurs solving crime. These sleuths have had varying relationships with the police. Medical professionals for example,are the investigators in many mysteries, and have an illustrious early ancestor, Dr. Watson. Contemporary medicine is much more specialized and this is reflected in detectives who are in such fields as forensics and criminal psychology.

With so many mysteries being published, overlap occurs frequently. A medical professional may also be a professor. A person with a doctorate in literature may also be a collector of rare books who has a bookstore. A professor may also be a cleric who teaches in an institution like Notre Dame that is associated with a particular religion.

As we are only considering academic mysteries, we are defining them as mysteries with a connection to an academic profession and/or academic setting, including institutions and the towns where such schools are located. Police regularly consult professors with different areas of expertise, and talk with teachers at different levels about problems in schools and behaviors of students. Academic campuses at all levels are communities in themselves. They are closed societies that have special advantages and disadvantages. Towns reflect inhabitants. Medieval students, as well as students today, are a young, energy-filled group. Town-gown is an ancient phrase that reflects the difficult situations that may arise, such as loud student behavior leaving the taverns. On the other hand, people attracted to life in academic settings may be more willing to support causes such as environmentalism. It is often up to the academic sleuth to act as interpreter of his/her community to police and others when crime occurs.

The following list is composed of authors who have written mysteries that reflect an academic background. The list starts with Marjorie Abrams and Gainesville. After acknowledging our own, we then go to Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night, which dates from the golden age of mysteries and is set in Oxford, England. After that, there are many listed in alphabetical order, with some annotations.

Marjorie Abrams Murder on the Prairie and Murder at Wakulla Springs

T. J. MacGregor Spree A Novel of Suspense Gainesville and Alachua County

Kenneth Kernes Reunion at University Avenue Power elite at the University of Florida

Aileen Schumacher Rosewood�s Ashes Gainesville, the University, academic liberals and Rosewood

First Academic Mystery

Dorothy L. Sayers Gaudy Night (1935) considered the classic academic mystery. Events take place at a reunion at Oxford, Sayers� own university. Women�s roles in the higher education world, students� interactions with other students are some issues. Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey are the sleuths in this first of a series of ten.

List of Academic Mysteries

Robert Barnard Death of a Literary Widow (1979) is set in an English town where Greg Hocking works for Oswaldston College of Further Education, a polytechnic. Working class relationship with academia, contrasts of British and American scholarship, and publish or perish are themes.

Gail Bowen The Glass Coffin (2002) is one of the series featuring Joanne Kilbourne, professor. In this book Kilbourne is involved wit network television people. Bowen, who is Canadian, teaches and is Department Head of English at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College of the University of Regina.

Gil Brewer The Campus Murders (1969) - published under the name Ellery Queen. Mike McCall, a U.S. governor�s special assistant, investigates the disappearance of a female student at Tisquanto State College. Good 1960s background, rebellious students and conservative faculty interactions.

Fiona Buckley Queen of Ambition (2002) is set in Cambridge, England, July 1564. A royal visit is scheduled when a young student�s body is found. The detective is a lady of the queen�s court who has been sent in advance to help prepare for the queen�s visit. The college town atmosphere is well done.

Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomson The Rule of Four, set in Princeton, 1999 where the snowy campus is stunned when a longtime student of the book is murdered. Solving a Renaissance text, location of a hidden crypt are parts of the bizarre world in which tom Sullivan and Paul Harris work.

Amanda Cross (Carolyn G/ Heilbrun) Professor of English and Humanities are Columbia University). In the Last Analysis (1964);The James Joyce Murder (1967), the first two of the series featuring Kate Fansler, professor. The Collected Stories (1997) � short stories, some first published in the Ellery Queen Magazine.

Jeanne M. Dams Death in Lacquer Road (1999) is set in Notre Dame where diversity and immigration are causing trouble under the golden dome of the university.

Jeanne Dobson Bold and Pure and Very Dead (2000). Karen Pelletier, English professor in Enfield College and sleuth, along with Lt. Piatrowski, are the detectives who are involved with rare books and the Northbury Papers. Classroom scenes take place.

Susan Dunlap CopOut (1997) one of a series featuring Jill Smith, a homicide detective in Berkeley, California. The novels bring the college town atmosphere alive, in a humorous way, as Jill solves crimes. Strong character development has won Smith awards.

Susanna Gregory A Plague on Both Your Houses (1996) is one of the Matthew Bartholomew series features a physician/teacher in the young Cambridge University of the mid-14th century.

Claudia Gross Scholarium set in Cologne, AD 141. A scholarly book, alchemy, chemistry, weird rites are part of the scenes. The small city has a studium generale, residents were used to that. The coming of the university has brought money and prestige, students from other places, Masters of the Faculty, one of whom becomes the investigator, to town. The role of women is presented.

Gwendolyn Gross Field Guide (2001) is set in Australia, where a professor leading students who are doing field work goes missing. Gross has an MFA in poetry and fiction from Sarah Lawrence college. She spent a semester in Australia researching bats. The book also describes the small university town of Townsville. Question � does this have a satisfying ending?

Susan Kandel Shamus in the Green Room (2000) Investigator Cece tutors Rufe, a movie star who does not like to read. Cece writes biographies of dead mystery writers. She traces the trail of Dashiell Hammet, famous American crime novelist, through San Francisco. Kandel is a former art critic for the Los Angeles Times, has taught at NYU and UCLA, and edited an international art journal.

Elizabeth Kennan, former president of Mt. Holyoke and Jill Kerr Conway, former president of Smith College Overnight Float (2000) The authors write about sleuth Rosemary Stubbs, graduate of a divinity school who teaches in a small college set in Vermont. Women�s issues and liberal arts are topics.

M.D. Lake, pen name of Allen Simpson, former professor of Scandinavian Studies at the U. of Minnesota. He has a series featuring Peggy O�Neill, security cop on a college campus with an inordinate number of murders. Poison Ivy, (1991) an award winning book, tells of a poisoned apple meant for the university more unpopular person.

Jane Langton is an artist and teacher who writes and illustrates her books. She is influenced by Dorothy Sayers. Dead as a Dodo, 1996, is set in Oxford, England, Professor Homer Kelly is a visiting professor, who, with his wife Mary, investigate an unexpected death. The pair solve mysteries in several books that have academic settings in New England. Humor is part of Langon's writing, one reason she has a lifetime achievement award for her mystery novels.

Charlotte Macleod, born in Canada, now a US citizen, is known as the queen of the whimsical whodunits for her tongue-in-chief cozy novels. She has a series featuring Peter Shandy, a professor at the Baclava Agricultural College who is renowned for his newly developed rutabaga.

G.M. Mallett, Death at the Alma Mater (2010). This mystery is set in St. Michael's College, Cambridge, England. The old buildings need renovation but funds are scarce. The faculty plan an event to bring the well-off alumna back to encourage donations. A murder brings more persons on campus, Inspector Just, and Sergeant Fear, from the Cambridge Constabulary. The investigation involves book rights, a matter that can arouse fury in the academic environment.

Jessica Mann From the UK, Mann has degrees in archaeology and Anglo-Saxon studies. In her books she explores attitudes and conventions in society. Her Thea Crawford novels depict the antagonisms and conflicts that arise at a university following Thea's appointment as professor of archaeology. Barry Maitland Babel (2002) An academic police procedural. A professor of architecture at the University of Newcastle in Australia, the author presents an insider's view of contrasts in how a university in London faculty have opposing views on what to encourage in modern curriculum. The Islamic influence in the area and genetic engineering are two examples of present problems for Detective Chief Inspector Brock and Sergeant Kathy Kolla. One of a series with the two..

Guillermo Martinez Oxford Murders(2006) The author has a PHD in mathematical science, which shows in this novel about an Argentine graduate student in England where he encounters a murderer who leaves notes that combine symbols and words. Intrepeting their meaning is part of solving the mystery.

Ralph McInerny Luck of the Irish (1998) A lecturer in philosophy over 40 years at Notre Dame, McInterny is an expert on St. Thomas Acquinas. Has written over 20 books on philosophy, religion and ethics, and over 50 mystery novels. Father Dowling is the detective in the book set on the Notre Dame campus.

Sister Anne O�Marie, a nun, writes mysteries featuring sleuth Sister Mary Helen, in her 70�s, a modern thinking woman who goes to do research at the St. Francis College in San Francisco. A professor is murdered, and Sister gets involved in a scheme to explore illegal Portuguese immigrants.

Christine Paulson Murder is Academic: A Cambridge Mystery (2002) features an academic problem: the oncoming Research Assessment Exercise. Every faculty member must contribute something of significance. How does this affect faculty? Stage Fright (2003) contains descriptions of college town life in Cambridge. Paulson is a research fellow at the Centre for 19th Century Studies at Sheffield University. She chairs the William Morris Society and has written widely on such matters as the Arthurian legends in Britain.

Frederick Ramsey Artscape (2004) The one claim to fame of the town of Picketsville in the Shenandoah Valley is the Callend College for women. The College houses the billion dollar Dillon Art Collection. Distress and action begin when there is a threat of removal of the collection.

Gillian Roberts I�d Rather Be in Philadelphia (1987) one of a series featuring Amanda Pepper, a 30 year old single woman teaching in a Philadelphia high school. The book gas a strong literary content,weaving together TheTaming of the Shrew with a book about battered women that contains frightening notes in the margin.

Lev Raphael The Edith Wharton Murders, A Nick Hoffman mystery. Action is set in the State University of Michigan in Michiganapolis. The detective, who is gay, investigates in a literary environment in the University.

Veronica Stallwood Death and the Oxford Box(1993) the first of a series featuring Oxford resident-novelist Kate Ivory. In Oxford Exit Ivory works to discover who is stealing books. Stallwood was a librarian at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Virginia Swift Hello, Stranger (2006) is the Mustang Sally mystery set in Wyoming. Sally Alder is a university professor who teaches a course in women�s history. Scenes with students, intrigue related to renter and landlord issues, and descriptions of life in the town are features of this book.

Sarah Stewart Taylor Judgment of the Grave (2005) is set in Concord, Mass. Gravestone expert and Harvard art history professor Sweeney St. George becomes involved in a complex story dealing with history and a missing professor.

Josephine Tey Miss Pym Disposes (1947) is set in a physical training college in England where the women are strong and energetic. Interesting to contrast with later novels about women�s colleges.

Pamela Thomas-Graham Blue Blood An Ivy League Mystery (1999). Nikki Chase, an African-American Harvard professor visits Yale and looks over New Haven. Besides solving a mystery, she finds that the city is disappointing.

M.J. Trow A Welsh author and expert on the British cavalry, Trow studied history at King�s College and taught in London. Trow set his first novel on the Isle of Wight. He sought to rectify the balance in the attitude of Sherlock Holmes to Inspector Lestrade.

Luis Fernando Verissimo. Borges and the Eternal Orangutans (2000). Translated from the Portuguese. A complex mystery dealing with the 1985 Usrafad Society Conference in Buenos Aires, the first meeting of the Edgar Allen Poe outside of the northern hemisphere. It is told by a strange man who had translated a story by Borges, a Poe admirer, in the past. The man tells us he has come to the conference on a strange errand.

Jill Allen Walsh Debts of Dishonor (2006) This is one in a series of Imogen Quy novels. She works in Cambridge where as a nurse she tends to the physical needs of students in St. Agnes College. Proposed changes bring trouble to the campus and the town.

Hillary Baldwin Waugh has had a varied career, a Yale graduate with a music minor who served in the US Navy Air Corps. In 1949 he decided to write a crime novel, and as he was dating a Smith College student who helped, he set it in a fictional girls� college. A police procedural . Last Seen Wearing was a success and is considered to be a pioneering book showing detailed police work. Waugh wrote some 35 more books.

David Williams Treasure in Oxford. It is summer break, and in the All Saints College the governors of the Moneybuckle Endowment are meeting. The rumor is that several valuable sketches by John Constable Turner have been found. A murder is committed. When a suspect is named, Mark Treasure thinks there is a mistake and sets out to find the perpetrator. Williams read history at Oxford, was in the Royal Navy and in advertising.

Dirk Wyle Medical School is Murder (2001). Ben Candid is a post doc scientist who lies on a boat and rides his bike to the U. of Miami labs. The Miami and Homestead areas have multi-ethnic staff, with Spanish, Portuguese, Guyanna, Dutch, French Creole among the many languages Ben hears. Local color makes this novel with its emphasis on science a colorful read.