cover image Bound to Murder

Bound to Murder

Dorsey Fiske. St. Martin's Press, $17.95 (305pp) ISBN 978-0-312-01002-7

Returning after his debut in Academic Murder, Fiske's Cambridge Fellow John Fenchurch performs sleuthing feats in an overburdened comedy-mystery. Fenchurch and Abbott librarian Grierson search for a priceless Chaucer and other treasures stolen from the college; they have no success, despite an abundance of glaring clues. The murder of a student brings Fenchurch another case to solve when the fiancee of the accused begs the don for help. Side plots involve a nasty TV investigative reporter who films the scene at a Fellows' feast, which she disrupts by sending a group of naked whores into their midst. This is no more amusing than librarian Grierson's lapses of grammar as he says, for example, ""We might take the same train as him'' and ``He's headed in the same direction as us.'' The author's arch mannerisms and laughs at the expense of a senile professor further diminish a story strung together by synthetic crises. (December 18)