Shadows on the Ivy: An Antique Print Mystery (Antique Print Mysteries) - Hardcover

Wait, Lea

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 074324950X ISBN 13: 9780743249508

Publisher: Scribner, 2004

Synopsis

When two of the residents at a county college's new single-parent dormitory die of poisoning, professor and antique print dealer Maggie Summer finds a host of suspects in a wealthy college benefactor and her husband, a professor hired for political reasons, and the college's reputation-driven president. 15,000 first printing.

About this title

Reviews

In Agatha nominee Wait's third enjoyable antique print mystery (after 2003's Shadows on the Coast of Maine), professor, antique print dealer and part-time sleuth Maggie Summer gets embroiled in an on-campus murder. Somerset County College, thanks to wealthy benefactors Dorothy and Oliver Whitcomb, is experimenting with a new dormitory designed to house single parents and their children. During a party at the Whitcombs' house, one of the students is poisoned, and as student adviser for the dorm residents, Maggie takes great interest in the case. When another student is murdered, Maggie digs even harder to get at the truth. Who could possibly have a motive to harm these struggling students? Are the Whitcombs as benevolent as they seem, or do they each have ulterior motives that could prove sinister? Maggie is hard put to juggle her teaching duties (during lectures she uses antique prints to illustrate American history) with her detecting. While it has little to do with the plot, Wait's knowledge of antique prints and American culture will entertain and educate readers.
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Maggie Summer, widowed, late thirties, owner of a house in Somerset County, New Jersey, history professor at the local junior college, and dealer in antique prints, is also the advisor to a house of single parents on campus. A wealthy local couple has endowed the house and the students so that they can live together, care for their children in a campus day-care center, and attend classes. When two of the young mothers are poisoned, all hell breaks loose. The president of the college thunders about the college's reputation, the donors' lives don't bear a lot of scrutiny, and Maggie is increasingly pressed to balance her work, her teaching, and her emotional isolation. Although the plot regularly veers into melodrama, Maggie is an extremely attractive protagonist. Descriptions of her antique prints head each chapter and have engaging connections to the content. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 074324950X
• ISBN 13: 9780743249508
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256