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Mcleod Dulaney #2
Death of a Princeton President
When Melissa Faircloth, Princeton's first female president, is found strangled, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writing teacher McLeod Dulaney finds himself immersed in murder, mystery, and a wealth of crooked characters.
- GenresMystery
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 3, 2004
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Ann Waldron
23 books18 followersAnn Waldron was born in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up on Cotton Avenue in West End. She went to Hemphill Grammar School and West End High School. She and her parents and older sister lived three blocks from the Vine Street Presbyterian Church, which they attended twice every Sunday and on Wednesday nights for prayer meeting. They spent summers on an 80-acre farm her parents owned in St. Clair County, near Cook Springs.
Ann was co-editor of her high school newspaper (the principal decreed that, although she was able enough, she was too much of a discipline problem to be the editor in chief). She did become editor of the Crimson-White, the student newspaper at the University of Alabama, from which she graduated in 1945. She attended Hudson Strode's creative writing class at the university and appeared in Blackfriars plays.
Her first job was with the Atlanta Constitution, where she was a reporter for two and a half years. It was there that she met her husband, Martin Waldron, who was then a student at Georgia Tech and who happened to see an advertisement for a copy boy's job on a bulletin board at Tech. He applied, got the job, and never looked back. He realized that he was destined to be a newspaper reporter, not an engineer, and he dropped out of Tech.
Martin later finished college at Birmingham-Southern while he worked for the Birmingham Post-Herald. Ann worked on The Progressive Farmer magazine. When Martin was hired by the Tampa Tribune the Waldrons, with their two children, Peter and Lolly, moved to Florida, where Martin first covered the citrus industry in Lakeland, and then the state capitol in Tallahassee.
The women's editor of the Tribune, knowing of Ann's journalistic experience, asked her to write a weekly feature on women in state government. By now there were two more children--Thomas William and Boojie (real name Martin Oliver Waldron III)--but she managed the one-day-a-week job happily. In fact, when she was in the hospital once, Martin wrote her column for her.
In 1960, the St. Petersburg Times hired both of them, but let them stay in Tallahassee. Martin led the team that did the series of stories exposing corruption in the management of the Florida Turnpike Authority that won the Times a Pulitzer Prize for Community Service.
Ann's column was still appearing in both the Times and the Miami Herald in 1965 when the New York Times hired Martin to open a bureau in Houston, Texas. The Waldrons moved to Houston, where Ann became book editor of the Houston Chronicle, and began writing children's books.
In 1975, the Times transferred Martin to New York and the Waldrons settled in Princeton. "We looked at suburbs on Long Island, Westchester County, Monclair, Red Bank, and Princeton, and we loved Princeton," Ann said. She took classes at Princeton University and went to work there as the associate editor of a quarterly magazine, University. She continued to write children's books, published six novels for young people, and wrote a book about art forgeries.
In 1981, Martin died, and Ann went to work fulltime for Princeton as the editor of its Campaign Bulletin. Children's books no longer held the same fascination for her--she wanted to do something different, and settled on a biography of Caroline Gordon. Biography seemed to be the ideal kind of book for her, since she could use research skills learne din journalism and bring people to life using some of the techniques of fiction I had learned. "Princeton University was an immensely helpful employer," she said. "My boss gave me every Wednesday afternoon off so I could do research in the library where Caroline Gordon's papers were held. Often in my travels for the Campaign Bulletin, I could do an interview for the biography as well."
http://www.annwaldron.com/bio.htm
Ann was co-editor of her high school newspaper (the principal decreed that, although she was able enough, she was too much of a discipline problem to be the editor in chief). She did become editor of the Crimson-White, the student newspaper at the University of Alabama, from which she graduated in 1945. She attended Hudson Strode's creative writing class at the university and appeared in Blackfriars plays.
Her first job was with the Atlanta Constitution, where she was a reporter for two and a half years. It was there that she met her husband, Martin Waldron, who was then a student at Georgia Tech and who happened to see an advertisement for a copy boy's job on a bulletin board at Tech. He applied, got the job, and never looked back. He realized that he was destined to be a newspaper reporter, not an engineer, and he dropped out of Tech.
Martin later finished college at Birmingham-Southern while he worked for the Birmingham Post-Herald. Ann worked on The Progressive Farmer magazine. When Martin was hired by the Tampa Tribune the Waldrons, with their two children, Peter and Lolly, moved to Florida, where Martin first covered the citrus industry in Lakeland, and then the state capitol in Tallahassee.
The women's editor of the Tribune, knowing of Ann's journalistic experience, asked her to write a weekly feature on women in state government. By now there were two more children--Thomas William and Boojie (real name Martin Oliver Waldron III)--but she managed the one-day-a-week job happily. In fact, when she was in the hospital once, Martin wrote her column for her.
In 1960, the St. Petersburg Times hired both of them, but let them stay in Tallahassee. Martin led the team that did the series of stories exposing corruption in the management of the Florida Turnpike Authority that won the Times a Pulitzer Prize for Community Service.
Ann's column was still appearing in both the Times and the Miami Herald in 1965 when the New York Times hired Martin to open a bureau in Houston, Texas. The Waldrons moved to Houston, where Ann became book editor of the Houston Chronicle, and began writing children's books.
In 1975, the Times transferred Martin to New York and the Waldrons settled in Princeton. "We looked at suburbs on Long Island, Westchester County, Monclair, Red Bank, and Princeton, and we loved Princeton," Ann said. She took classes at Princeton University and went to work there as the associate editor of a quarterly magazine, University. She continued to write children's books, published six novels for young people, and wrote a book about art forgeries.
In 1981, Martin died, and Ann went to work fulltime for Princeton as the editor of its Campaign Bulletin. Children's books no longer held the same fascination for her--she wanted to do something different, and settled on a biography of Caroline Gordon. Biography seemed to be the ideal kind of book for her, since she could use research skills learne din journalism and bring people to life using some of the techniques of fiction I had learned. "Princeton University was an immensely helpful employer," she said. "My boss gave me every Wednesday afternoon off so I could do research in the library where Caroline Gordon's papers were held. Often in my travels for the Campaign Bulletin, I could do an interview for the biography as well."
http://www.annwaldron.com/bio.htm
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 12, 2010
McLeod is back a Princeton, teaching a writing class. When the new president (who happens to be female) disappears one of McLeod's students asks her to help find her, because the president happens to be her mother.
McLeod does what she does best, she goes around and asks questions. For some reason people seem to be willing to talk to McLeod when they won't talk to anyone else.
I enjoy spending time on the Princeton campus with McLeod and her cast of friends and acquaintances and am willing to go back again for the next book in the series.
McLeod does what she does best, she goes around and asks questions. For some reason people seem to be willing to talk to McLeod when they won't talk to anyone else.
I enjoy spending time on the Princeton campus with McLeod and her cast of friends and acquaintances and am willing to go back again for the next book in the series.
October 23, 2021
Second book in the author's series of mysteries featuring reporter and visiting lecturer McLeod Dulaney, who just can't help but investigate the murder of the Princeton University President. Third in the series I have read. Not a bad book, at all. I like the main character, and I enjoyed the story line, but most of all I appreciated the many references to locales in and around Princeton, NJ, with which I am familiar.
August 27, 2011
Her second book is just as good as her first. Ann Waldron's Princeton University setting describes a calm, beautiful area in New Jersey. Murder and mayhem reign as McLeod Dulaney is once again a Visiting Lecturer in the English department. Hollywood has taken over parts of the campus and town for the making of a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel . . . With all of the excitement and confusion, McLeod finds herself investigating a murder!
November 20, 2013
Well, McLeod Delaney is again entrenched trying to solve a murder at the Princeton University campus...this time it is the new female President. Some of her friends from her last visit there are again involved. It's a decent story, but what's with the recipes printed at the back of the book??!!
July 25, 2016
Really good.
June 18, 2016
Less structure to the investigation than 'Death of a Princeton President'
December 13, 2019
This was a fun book. I enjoyed the NJ flair and the characters. It was good at keeping you guessing.
2019,
Still pretty good. Just wondering why a Florida newspaper would want NJ stories.
2019,
Still pretty good. Just wondering why a Florida newspaper would want NJ stories.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews