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Angela Matelli #5
Habeas Campus
Angela Matelli grew up in a large Italian family in East Boston, leaving only to join the U. S. Marine Corps. Now working as a private investigator, Angela's usual case involves the streets and scenes she has known since childhood. And her caseload has included some of the toughest around - kidnappers, terrorists, murders, and her mother. But now she's been called upon to take on a new case up in the usually bucolic countryside of Vermont on the campus of Hartmore College and it may finally be the one that is too much for her skills.
Her client at the well-regarded school is a professor of anthropology specializing in the study of Haiti and voodoo. Less than a week ago, one of his students died suddenly of no cause and, after that, he is sure that he saw her walking near campus. Since then, he's received two crude voodoo warnings on his life. Now Angela has to protect her client while tracking down the truth about the student's death, and possible reanimation.
Her client at the well-regarded school is a professor of anthropology specializing in the study of Haiti and voodoo. Less than a week ago, one of his students died suddenly of no cause and, after that, he is sure that he saw her walking near campus. Since then, he's received two crude voodoo warnings on his life. Now Angela has to protect her client while tracking down the truth about the student's death, and possible reanimation.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 10, 2020
A pleasant, quick read about real-life zombies in Vermont. Yes, on a college campus (fictional of course) just as the title promises, and yes, it qualifies as a mystery starring Angela Matelli, ex-Marine (but she says a Marine is never "ex") and private investigator. There are comforting scenes with Angela's family in East Boston, followed by a step-by-step account of her investigation in fictional Bristol, which is located exactly where St. Johnsbury VT sits in real life.
Okay, zombies. Obviously it's the major distinguishing feature for this short novel that sets it apart from thousands of other fairly cozy mysteries. (Very little gore, sex scene acknowledged & politely skipped.) The publisher's blurb, repeated at the top of this Goodreads page, talks about a college student's mysterious death and possible reanimation as well as death threats to her professor, who hires Angela to go undercover as a transfer student specializing in forensic anthropology. Amusing classroom scenes and awkward interactions follow for Angela as she reads up on Haitian culture and shares some of it with us.
A surprising number of the people Angela meets on campus seem to have lived in Haiti (and two are Haitians) and know all about the traditional practice of creating zombies, either as a punishment or as a criminal enterprise. The victim is given tetrodotoxin (the poison that's found in blowfish aka Japanese fugu) in a dose that's nonlethal but simulates death. When it wears off in a few days, the victim is still seriously incapacitated and obeys instructions if they're very simple. In other words, an ideal plantation slave, kept that way by being drugged from time to time with a different substance (the "zombie cucumber").
Unfortunately for readers who don't prepare a vocabulary list as they go along, a dozen or so Haitian Creole terms for this practice and its practitioners are used throughout the book. I forgot some of the semantic distinctions that would have helped in critical scenes.
Angela gets a break from the focus on Haiti by striking up a relationship (confidant and sex partner) with a computer science major whom she meets in an ethnobotany class. He's there because he thought it would be an easy credit and finds romance instead. She's there to investigate the instructor, a well-described Difficult Person who grew up in Haiti as the daughter of American missionaries; this woman is perhaps the most interesting of all the suspects.
After a while I felt this was more of a thriller than a mystery, but Angela does find out--at some cost to herself--who has been doing what to whom and why. I enjoyed it and you might too.
Okay, zombies. Obviously it's the major distinguishing feature for this short novel that sets it apart from thousands of other fairly cozy mysteries. (Very little gore, sex scene acknowledged & politely skipped.) The publisher's blurb, repeated at the top of this Goodreads page, talks about a college student's mysterious death and possible reanimation as well as death threats to her professor, who hires Angela to go undercover as a transfer student specializing in forensic anthropology. Amusing classroom scenes and awkward interactions follow for Angela as she reads up on Haitian culture and shares some of it with us.
A surprising number of the people Angela meets on campus seem to have lived in Haiti (and two are Haitians) and know all about the traditional practice of creating zombies, either as a punishment or as a criminal enterprise. The victim is given tetrodotoxin (the poison that's found in blowfish aka Japanese fugu) in a dose that's nonlethal but simulates death. When it wears off in a few days, the victim is still seriously incapacitated and obeys instructions if they're very simple. In other words, an ideal plantation slave, kept that way by being drugged from time to time with a different substance (the "zombie cucumber").
Unfortunately for readers who don't prepare a vocabulary list as they go along, a dozen or so Haitian Creole terms for this practice and its practitioners are used throughout the book. I forgot some of the semantic distinctions that would have helped in critical scenes.
Angela gets a break from the focus on Haiti by striking up a relationship (confidant and sex partner) with a computer science major whom she meets in an ethnobotany class. He's there because he thought it would be an easy credit and finds romance instead. She's there to investigate the instructor, a well-described Difficult Person who grew up in Haiti as the daughter of American missionaries; this woman is perhaps the most interesting of all the suspects.
After a while I felt this was more of a thriller than a mystery, but Angela does find out--at some cost to herself--who has been doing what to whom and why. I enjoyed it and you might too.
March 17, 2008
Abandoned 2/3 of the way through. I just couldn't slog through any more wooden dialogue. I know that, as a genre, mysteries are sometimes not the best written literature on the shelves... but there's a line, and this one crossed it. My eyeballs rebelled and refused to read any more.
February 21, 2024
Zombies...hhhhuuuummmm... I'm a ghost girl, myself. If pushed, witches, but zombies?? Well, ok. It was different, that's about all I'll say at this point. I still enjoy the characters, and Angela is just starting to get more of a personal life, become more dimensional as a person. Since this is the last book in the series, I expected an ending. You know the type; she gets married and decides to retire or something. Nope. She gets a boyfriend and they have to decide where the relationship is going. Then everything just stops, leaving the characters hanging. Nothing wrapped up. So, I guess the author has simply stopped writing the Angela Matelli series. This is very disappointing. Having said that, I still give the series a solid 5***** and highly recommend it for anyone who likes a strong female character.
May 4, 2018
Boston private investigator Angela Matelli has been hired by a Vermont college professor, Dr. Don Cannon, to determine who's been sending him some unusual items, such as a voodoo doll and a chicken heart nailed to his door. Dr. Cannon teaches anthropology, with a specialty in Haiti and the practice of voodoo. He considers these items to be warnings against him and is feeling threatened, especially since one of his students has recently died from unknown causes. Dr. Cannon also believes that he has since seen this recently deceased student wandering around campus in a "zombie" state. Angela doesn't know what to make of all of this, but a job is a job, and it's time for her to go back to school.
March 21, 2008
Mystery
January 28, 2012
Short and sweet, but nothing special about this book.
October 17, 2015
Author writes like a zombie.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews