The Fast Death Factor

Academia, with its potential for internecine politics, clandestine romances and murderous jealousies, has--like the small English village--always been a popular setting for the traditional mystery. Crosby makes excellent use of this familiar background in a readable albeit overlong and slowly paced first novel about the poisoning of the less-than-beloved president of a California college. (Oenophiles will be taken aback by the fact that the victim succumbs to a glass of Chateau d'Yquem, one of world's best-known and most respected sauternes, which is served here as a cocktail, laced with cassis.) An intriguing array of suspects includes the dead man's unhappy wife, the beautiful college dean with whom he may have had an affair, an angry lesbian photographer whom he denied tenure and a full complement of disgruntled male faculty members and administrators. The reader knows that the killer--who strikes more than once--is someone known as ``Dodie,'' introduced into the narrative periodically in awkward scenes designed to protect both identity and sex (although the latter is fairly obvious). The story's focus seems somewhat askew as well: the bulk of the book is devoted to the investigations of two dogged policemen, but the crime is ultimately solved due to the efforts of a secondary character. Despite its faults, however, this is an enjoyable debut. (Nov.)