MarysLibrary: Mrs Malory: Detective in Residence

Mrs Malory comes to America! Having been offered a four-month teaching gig at a small college in Pennsylvania, Mrs Malory is in the US, visiting her friend Anne in Brooklyn (and spending much of her day on 5th Avenue, though not buying much.) The two will drive to Wilmot College where Mrs Malory will stay with Anne's sister Linda while she is teaching at the college.

Nearby is a first-rate art institute (think the Barnes collection.) After a musical performance there the director gives Miss Malory a tour of the beautiful old building. But there is more on the top floor than a computer system and some antique furniture. The curator is found dead and it seems everybody who might want this despicable man dead has an alibi.

Mrs Malory becomes friends with her fellow English Department teachers, some of her students, and Lieutenant Mike Landis, the cop investigating the murder. She agrees to give him a sketch of the politics in the department and the people there, including Max' even more despicable brother. Which leads to a conflict between the things Mrs Malory has been told in confidence and her agreement with the detective.

When another body turns up and everybody seems to have an alibi for one or the other murders, Landis must contemplate the possibility that there are two murderers. Meanwhile in her spare time Mrs Malory is visiting historical sites like Antietam and eating American food like shoo-fly pie with the detective. Is he getting a little too fond of her company?

This is another delightful mystery with a well-crafted plot and just enough character development to make those in and around the English department either people who Mrs Malory believes have the capacity to murder two people and those who would never do such a thing. But Mrs Malory may be a little premature to discount some of these seemingly mild mannered teachers.

**** At one point in the book Miss Malory is talking to some college administrators and writes, ". . . remembering just in time to say 'pro-vost.'" How do the English pronounce provost?