Death with Dostoevsky

Returning to her college to do a month of research into Dostoevsky, professor and amateur sleuth Emily Cavanaugh finds herself involved with murder again (following Cyanide with Christie, 2019). The victim, Professor Taylor Curzon, preyed on her male students, luring one into her bed each semester by using grades as her lever. Her latest target: Daniel Razumov, with whom Emily is sharing a library desk and a research subject. But Daniel, who loves fellow student Svetlana Goldstein, spurned Curzon, who was found in her office with her head bludgeoned by a statuette belonging to Daniel. There is no shortage of those with a motive to do Curzon harm, however, including division head Richard McClintock; Taylor's would-be ex, Douglas; and lawyer Saul Goldstein, Svetlana's father, furious over an unfair grade Curzon gave his daughter. Yet it's Daniel who is charged with the murder, prompting Emily to work to defend the young man she has come to admire. In her fourth Crime with the Classics entry, Hyde effectively blends romance and mystery, delivering a suitably satisfactory ending to a winning campus cozy.--Michele Leber Copyright 2019 Booklist

Hyde's lively fourth Crime with the Classics mystery (after Cyanide with Christie) finds Prof. Emily Cavanaugh back at Bede College in Portland, Ore., to research and eventually write "the definitive English-language work on Dostoevsky's tormented relationship with his Orthodox faith as it played out in his fiction." She shares a study area with Daniel Razumov, a former student of hers, who has become the new target of Taylor Curzon, a 40-something professor with a habit of "sinking her teeth into a different piece of fresh young male meat each semester." When Taylor ends up beaten to death, all the evidence points to Daniel, who has no alibi, nor does he have any memory of the time the crime was committed. Emily steps up to investigate and soon uncovers plenty of other suspects. She lays out her reasoning in such a way as to allow the reader to follow her thoughts, but not necessarily beat her to the crime's solution. Campus hijinks and budding romances complement the satisfying fair-play plot. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron Assoc. (Dec.)

Back at Oregon's Reed College, which Hyde has now renamed Bede College to avoid too many possible inconsistencies with the real deal, professor Emily Cavanaugh plans to spend her sabbatical leave finishing her book on Dostoevsky's spirituality. That's not exactly how things work out.Now that she's all but retired from Bede, Emily (Cyanide With Christie, 2019, etc.) feels more than ever her marginal status. She's reluctant to pull rank on Daniel Razumov, one of her students, when she finds him with a raft of books on Dostoevsky she needs for her own work. She backs down from a confrontation with professor Taylor Curzon over whether her colleague should leave her hands off Daniel, whom she clearly has in her sights. And when she threatens to bring the case of Daniel's girlfriend, Svetlana Goldstein, whom Taylor unfairly gave a D, to smirking divisional chair professosr Richard McClintock, she finds herself eavesdropping with chagrin on Taylor's highly successful blackmail of McClintock. It might seem nothing but a relief when someone bashes Taylor's head in with a miniature bronze replica of the famous Bronze Horseman statue in St. Petersburg's Senate Square. As Emily instantly recognizes, however, the murder weapon belongs to Daniel, whom the police promptly arrest. Luckily, the police are represented by Detective Colin Richards, the nephew of Emily's intended, Lt. Sheriff Luke Richards, and the connection gives Emily a birds'-eye view of the investigation and more than a little influence over its direction, both before and after the Russian Mafia gets improbably involved. It's not that Richards will do whatever Emily says; it's that knowing what he's doing allows her to deploy her own alliesprofessor Marguerite Grenier, her bestie; adjunct professor Oscar Lansing, her newfound half brother; and Saul Goldstein, Esq., Svetlana's fathermore efficiently.Eventually the heroine reflects: "She could be inside one of Dostoevsky's novelswhere anything might happen." Um, no. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.