Passport to Murder: A Professor Prather Mystery

Francophile Emmeline Prather, an English professor at the university in Copper Bluff, S.Dak., is looking forward to a week in Paris during spring break with a group of other faculty members and students, in Angela’s enjoyable sequel to 2016’s An Act of Murder. But soon after takeoff from the Minneapolis airport, Molly Jaspers, a professor who was “fairly well-known on campus for her work in land conservation across the state,” dies of apparent anaphylactic shock, and the plane returns to Minneapolis. Two police detectives, overseen by FBI agent Tom Sanders, investigate what becomes a murder case. When Sanders focuses on French professor André Duman, Emmeline’s friend who organized the trip, as the prime suspect, Emmeline determines to prove André’s innocence. After the trip is canceled, the dispirited travelers return to campus, where a second death raises the stakes. Emmeline’s shrewd questioning of students and professors uncovers hidden motives and secrets in this clever academic mystery. (Sept.)