Shade, by H.N. Hirsch (Bob and Marcus Mystery 1)

[Ulysses]

Shade (Bob and Marcus Mystery 1)
By H.N. Hirsch
Pisgah Press, 2021
Five stars

On the strength of this murder-mystery I bought the next two in H.N. Hirsch’s Bob and Marcus series.

Columbia University professor and political scientist Wallace Sayre is quoted as saying: "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low."

That rather sets the tone for this drily witty—and simultaneously heartfelt—murder-mystery set in the hallowed halls of Harvard. The book’s basic story is pretty simple: Marcus George, an adjunct history professor at Harvard, is caught up in the murder of a brilliant newly-graduated student.

Along the way, Marcus meets a young Brown graduate, Bob Abramson, and the plot unfolds as Marcus and Bob find their way into coupledom while trying to help the murder victim’s family discover why their son was murdered.

This isn’t really a cozy mystery (which is a thing, if you didn’t know it). Right from the start there is tension, as the various parts of the puzzle begin to fit together in awkward ways. Marcus is insecure because of his background in the face of Ivy League arrogance. His own Princeton degree isn’t quite enough to protect him, which surprised me. More to the point, I suspect, is the fact that adjunct professors are notoriously underpaid and exploited, a state they accept in their desire to ascend to the nirvana of academic tenure.

Secondarily, but significantly, Marcus is also insecure about not quite meeting the highest standards in the gay world that he, Bob, and the murder victim are all part of. This is where Marcus contrasts nicely with Bob, who is both handsome and comfortable in his skin—something attributable to his warm and accepting Jewish family. It’s too complicated to discuss without spoilers, but Hirsch does a very deft job of handling all the religious/social class stuff without getting too heavy-handed. And, from his bio at the end, the author learned all this on the job.

There is plenty of shade thrown at the snobbishness of elite universities and their backstabbing faculties. There is conscious contrast made between Marcus’s middle-class Jewish roots in Chicago versus the prestige-hungry academics at Harvard and the rich Wasps who nurture and protect their privilege. Because the story is set in 1985, I could cross-check the author’s details against my own experience in the 1980s—I’m apparently just Marcus’s age. As it happens, I met my Jewish husband at Yale in 1975, and I can attest that Hirsch has caught the feeling of the moment of the mid-1980s. Even as gay liberation was advancing, the scourge of AIDS was rising fast and Republicans were running the country. A lot of his story resonated with me, and the author should be praised for getting it right.

Hirsch is gentle with his characters, especially Marcus and Bob. Rather than the chest-pounding romance I’m usually drawn to, this is a more realistic story of two people meeting (under difficult circumstances in this case) and then finding that they really click. This quiet realism carries the reader through the book, and leaves them looking forward to Marcus and Bob’s next adventure.