The Mystery of the Invisible Hand: A Henry Spearman Mystery

Jevons (the pen name of economics professor Kenneth G. Elzinga) combines entertaining economic lessons with a crafty whodunit in his excellent fourth Henry Spearman mystery (after 1995’s A Deadly Indifference). Harvard economics professor Spearman, who’s riding high after winning the Nobel Prize, accepts an invitation to serve as a visiting professor at Monte Vista University in San Antonio, Tex., where a few weeks earlier, the city was stunned by a baffling art theft. Five paintings by an acclaimed local artist Tristan Wheeler disappeared from the owner’s home under inexplicable circumstances. Soon after Spearman arrives in San Antonio, the suspicious suicide of a prominent individual appears to relate to the theft. Jevons delights in dropping counterintuitive economic insights into the story line (e.g., why someone afraid of staining his tie should buy more expensive neckwear). The solution, with a nod to a classic deduction of Sherlock Holmes, flows naturally from an economic explanation of human behavior. (Sept.)