Murder is acadamic when, after complaining about the noise on fraternity row, Professor Warren is bludgeoned to death, and rookie campus cop, Peggy O'Neill, must solve the crime to pass with flying colors
MD Lake is the pseudonym for Allen Simpson, a professor of Scandanavian literature at the University of Minnesota and a former humor columnist for The Minnesota Daily. An Agatha-Award winning author, he has published ten Peggy O'Neill mysteries.
Peggy O’Neill, is now a campus security cop after serving 4 years in the navy. When responding to a professor’s complaint that the noise from the fraternity houses was too loud, she quiets the frats then goes to the professor’s office only to find him dead: the back of his head was bashed in. Murder cases are not usually handled by campus security and the case was turned over to the regular police, but Peggy could not forget the incident – or leave it to the regular homicide cops to solve the murder. She found out that the lives of the faculty were quite different than she had expected. – Unfortunately, I never really felt I got to know Peggy well-enough to care about her…. Or to want to read other of her adventures.
I enjoyed this cozy mystery following a female University of Minnesota campus cop and her investigation (non-sanctioned) of the murder of a professor. Peggy is the one who finds the body, but her investigation extends back for, at least, a year.
I liked Peggy; she seemed pretty real. She's not a super-cop; she's a rookie, but has mostly good instincts about things. Published first in 1989, younger readers may find some of the situations different from today (cell phones aren't really a thing, etc.).
This old beat up paperback has been on my TBR shelf/pile for years. I have too many other books to read to continue since it did not grab me in the first 50 pages. No stars since I didn't finish it.