The Examiner

On the plus side, reading a mystery set in British academia distracted me from current events in the US. On the negative side, everything else. Granted, I'm the farthest thing from an expert on the genre, but knowing what crime I am supposed to solve seems like a minimum requirement, and I remained in the dark for more than half of the story. Getting most of the answers in an info dump of previously unseen correspondence between the critical parties felt a tad too convenient. YMMV if you are a better sleuth than I am; it's very possible that the clues were there all along, but I was too oblivious to notice them. I had sworn off Janice Hallett after [b:The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels 61157639 The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels Janice Hallett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1663000500l/61157639.SY75.jpg 95686980], but epistolary novels have been my catnip ever since [b:Up the Down Staircase 160320 Up the Down Staircase Bel Kaufman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348028242l/160320.SY75.jpg 154741], back in what is now kindly known as the “mid-century” era. This time I mean it!