Blunt Instrument

Novelist Bloom (I’ll Be Right Here) makes her mystery debut with a witty whodunit featuring failed academic Dell Chandler, who supplements her PI training with copious episodes of Law & Order. Dell is called to the Connecticut campus of Cromwell University to investigate the death of English department head Oliver Bullfinch, one of the most esteemed American literature scholars in the world. Bullfinch’s body was found in his office, battered by a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the administration, hoping to avoid too much media attention, wants Dell to get to the bottom of the case before the police do. Dell’s list of suspects lengthens as she interviews Bullfinch’s colleagues and a consensus emerges: he was “a vicious, doddering old man, vain about his reputation and indifferent to those of his junior colleagues.” Bloom draws on her own experience with the dog-eat-dog world of academia to depict the brusque, irascible Dell’s winding journey toward the truth. Some late-breaking plot contrivances take this down a few notches, but for the most part, it’s a blast. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME. (June)