Following on from the antics on the arctic research ship in Murder on Ice, we’re back on dry land for the next instalment of The Blanchard Twins’ Mysteries.
Marine Biologist Finn Blanchard takes the lead in this one as his twin sister Rose is off counting rays in sunnier climes, and he’s perfectly capable of carrying his own book, thank you very much.
Taking up a post-grad postion at a university, he’s there to try and find a mythical shark species in a glacial lake.
He’s barely unpacked his luggage when he finds himself in the centre of a political nightmare in academia, with candidates vying for tenure, with bitching and backstabbing galore. Prior to his arrival, once of the administrators was found dead in an apparent fall down the stairs, which automatically triggers Finn’s curiosity. When a second body is later found, and Finn realises he was the last to see the person alive, the stakes rise dramatically. Are the deaths really linked to the missing Shakespeare play, Cardenio?
I adore this series – smart, twisty, and reminiscent of Golden Age crime novels, with intelligent characters you love to root for. Plays may not be Finn’s area of expertise, but he won’t leave a puzzle unsolved. His terrier-like tenacity and curiosity may well lead him into trouble, but that’s not going to stop him. Balancing turning the campus into a giant treasure hunt and the toxic interdepartmental politics of the university, the storyline moves along at a steady pace, and I found myself reading into the early hours of the morning as my need-to-know is almost as intense as Finn’s!
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