The Bursar’s Wife: A George Kocharyan Mystery

Cambridge, England, is the setting for this unconvincing series launch from the pseudonymous Rodford. Sylvia Booker wants to hire George Kocharyan, of Cambridge Confidential Services, to check on her daughter, Lucy, a fresher at Emmanuel College, whose behavior concerns her. Lucy’s father is the bursar at Morley College, where Kocharyan’s father once worked as a servant before leaving abruptly. A little surveillance reveals that Lucy is visiting Quintin Boyd, a senior partner in a corporate law firm, and as Kocharyan gets pulled further into the case, he discovers additional connections among Boyd and the Bookers and other former students at Morley who belonged to the Cambridge Blue Club. Further coincidences link Boyd to another of Kocharyan’s cases. Kocharyan proves he can take punishment and keep on coming in the best hardboiled tradition, but Rodford, the pen name of Mischa Hiller (Sabra Zoo), strains credulity beyond reason. Agent: David Grossman, David Grossman Literary Agency. (Mar.)