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![[Hot Rocks]](images/Hot-Rocks-new-93.jpg)
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Nick Hoffman's State University of Michigan is a place where the Borgias and the Marx Brothers would be equally at home. Heading into the Christmas season, SUM is being torn apart by bizarre attempts to make it more diverse while an autocratic new provost pushes for a White Studies program and Nick faces not only a tenure battle but conflicting requests for support in a battle for department chair.
As if it weren't enough that his professional life is a mix of seasonal chaos and departmental warfare, Nick's personal life also takes a turn: He discovers that he's attracted to the outrageously sexy Juno Dromgoole and disturbed by these disorienting new feelings in his life. He also finds himself the target, along with Juno, of a vicious harassment campaign that escalates into stalking, assault, and attempted murder. There's certainly no shortage of suspects, only of solid clues. The decisions Nick faces may change his life forever... if he survives.
From the book:
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"You bought a gun?" My department at the State University of Michigan at Michiganapolis was not a place where they made mountains out of molehills -- they made volcanoes, and you never knew when the next eruption was due. But despite that combustibility I was still shocked by Juno Dromgoole's announcement when she had me over for dinner on a mild early December night. And so I asked her twice. "You bought a gun? You really bought a gun?" Juno nodded and set down her wine glass. "Of course I did. Teaching here is too dangerous. How else can I protect myself?" Having shared this news, Juno calmly took another sip of Kenwood zinfandel. "But, Juno, don't you think getting a gun is--" "--what?" she snapped. "Extreme? No it isn't. Not when they mow down professors left and right here." Of course she was exaggerating, but even though the State University of Michigan at Michiganapolis wasn't quite Bosnia or even the Alamo, Juno definitely had a point. The faculty at SUM had suffered heavier than usual attrition in the past few years through murder, and there really was no way of knowing who was going to become the next dead academic. How bad was it? Well, if SUM were the Dow Jones index, brokers would be talking about a "market correction." |
Advance Praise for Burning Down the House:
- Lev Raphael's lacerating wit fillets the fatted calves of academia, roasts them with the hot breath of satire, then serves them up in the sauciest of mysteries.
Val McDermid, author of A Place of Execution - As ever, Lev Raphael is witty, biting and on the nail when it comes to the groves and gripes of academe.
Ian Rankin, author of Dead Souls