Murder at the B-School, by Jeffrey Cruikshank

Thursday, November 04, 2004

"Vermeer imagined explaining the whole messy situation -- dead rich kid, Harvard, and so on -- to the state trooper who flagged him down doing 120 through the moneyed western suburbs."

"Reluctantly he slowed down. He had had a motorcycle once that talked to him in the same kind of ways. He had finally had to get rid of it."

Told mostly from the perspective of a junior faculty member who is about to not make tenure in the Harvard Business school, Murder at the B-School looks at the dependence of even so august an institution as Harvard upon the patronage of wealthy families and support of local politicians. Internecine fighting among faculty (the motive for which is, unfortunately, only inadequately explained) leads not only to Wim Vermeer's imminent separation from Harvard, but also the plight he eventually finds himself in when the dean sends him off to console the fabulously wealthy family of a possibly murdered student, Eric MacInnes. Vermeer doesn't know why he's been singled out for the honor, but the dean is one who must be disobeyed. Assuming he is nothing more than the school's representative, heterosexual Vermeer soon finds the MacInnes family and staff hostile to him for an affair with their dead son that never took place. Vermeer gets into further and further mischief as his temper flares up in response to the sinking feeling that he has been set up. Fortunately for Vermeer, he has the support of a captain on the Boston police, who also suffers from collegial hostility. Captain Barbara Brouillard steers clear of the typical detective show policeman's tendency to prefer the most obvious explanation. She thinks it's too cute, but to Vermeer, it seems damning, and he doubts Captain Brouillard's belief in his innocence. When police find a second murder victim, the McInnes daughter, just after Vermeer has had a very public argument with her, Vermeer becomes desperate. He follows whatever lead he can, breaking ad lib. legal arrangements between him and Harvard as he leaves, not only town, but country in pursuit of the person he believes has set him up.

A delightful page-turner, Murder at the B-School depicts the reality of modern academic life and the surreal world of the fabulously wealthy. The two lead characters are plausibly motivated and sympathetic. Vermeer's unbridled temper and tendency to talk to machines, and the occasional deus ex machina add touches of comic relief. The plot evolves gradually with one clue teased out at a time. The weakness of Murder at the B-School as a murder mystery, is in the area of motive, which is especially noticeable in the lack of background between Vermeer and his nemesis.

Murder at the B-School
by Jeffrey Cruikshank
Mysterious Press
2004
336 pages

Thursday, November 04, 2004