Darkness Descends on Princeton: A 1930s Murder Mystery

Readers who like their whodunits light and quirky will enjoy Jacobs’s unusual brew, set in 1939 Princeton, N.J. Eve Krell’s piano lesson at the home of her instructor, Prof. Adolph Menjou (no relation to the actor of the same name), is cut short when he’s gunned down after receiving a phone call. To Eve’s horror, Menjou’s widow accuses her of the murder, making her the prime suspect. Eve gets a reprieve when her boyfriend, college paper sports reporter Gordon Radits, intervenes, and the pair go on the lam. A number of real-life people, including Albert Einstein, appear as themselves. Others turn up in alternate professions, such as British character actors Alan Mowbray (a butler) and Lionel Atwill (a funeral home director). Menjou’s murder is followed by another en route to a dramatic climax at the New York World’s Fair. Jacobs tosses in some amusing winks at the reader, as when a young Gloria Stuart foreshadows her Oscar-nominated role in Titanic. [em](BookLife) [/em]