In Challinor’s thin third mystery to feature Scottish barrister Rex Graves (after 2009’s Murder in the Raw
), Rex’s visit to his son, Campbell, a sophomore at Hilliard University in Jacksonville, Fla., takes a deadly turn. Dixon Clark, Campbell’s resident adviser and peer mentor, apparently hangs himself in his dorm room. The authorities suspect suicide since instructions on how to commit suicide were downloaded from Dix’s computer, but Keith and Katherine, the victim’s disbelieving parents, ask Rex to investigate. As Rex researches Dix’s past, a campus gossip Web site yields clues and a recent incident regarding Dix’s role in the expulsion of another student. Extra stress arrives with Rex’s distraught ex-girlfriend, Moira Wilcox, an aid worker who suffers from post-traumatic stress after witnessing a car-bombing in Iraq. Nothing if not resourceful, Rex focuses on sleuthing and being a good dad in this lightweight cozy. (Mar.)
