Whoever said that the pen was mightier than the sword might have had The Edith Wharton Murders in mind. In this campus mystery by the talented Lev Raphael, a conference on Edith Wharton becomes a killing ground when various literary factions carry their war of words a little too far--and someone ends up dead. At the heart of both the hostilities and the mystery is Nick Hoffman, a Wharton bibliographer saddled with the thankless task of moderating the conference. Once the murder has occurred, Nick must switch his focus from panel discussions to investigation, a course of action that provides plenty of opportunities for author Raphael to skewer the academic world he left behind.


The New York Times Book Review
A "maliciously funny campus mystery...Raphael has marvelous recall of the entertaining world he left behind."


The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
Is vulgar literary taste sufficient motive for murder? Actually, killing is too kind for the vindictive scholars in Lev Raphael's maliciously funny campus mystery The Edith Wharton Murders.


From Kirkus Reviews
As if the State University of Michigan weren't already full enough of misfits and malcontents, a conference on Edith Wharton promises to pipe more in from across the country. Reluctant conference organizer Nick Hoffman is sure that the invited guests- -rival Wharton scholars Van Deegan Jones (of the offensively insular old guard) and Verity Gallup (of the offensively irresponsible new), trendy punk novelist Chloe DeVore and her current lover Vivianne Fresnel, bestselling trashy romancer/aspiring Wharton biographer Grace-Dawn Vaughan and her professor-baiting editor Devon Davenport--will mix so well with the home-grown cargo of covetous academics, spineless administrators, and born-again trustees that they'll all be delighted when the conference is history. But even Nick is surprised when Chloe DeVore is bashed to death with one of the attractive new granite tiles being installed at the conference site, and a throng of new suspects (a lesbian colleague hoping to break up Chloe's on-again affair with Vivianne! a novelist prostrated by Chloe's dismissive review! a fortuitous ex-husband!) come leaping into the spotlight with all the spontaneity and emotional expressiveness of the Rockettes. As in Nick's debut (Let's Get Criminal, 1996), criminal investigation takes a backseat to catty gossip as the narrator outdoes the characters by trashing authors as diverse as David Baldacci and Eve K. Sedgwick. Except for the murders, the conference turns out pretty well. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
[A] maliciously funny campus mystery...Rahael has marvous recall of the entertaining world he left behind." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"A witty fast-paced mystery that is also a hilarious send-up of academia at its quietly snarling worst." --Booklist

"Lev Raphael skewers academic pretenstions with wicked glee [and] Dickensian flair. Few writers are as adept at lampooning academic inanity." --Chicago Sun-Times

"The groves of academe have never been bitchier."

"Marvelous humor and satisfying mystery...wickedly funny." --Drood Review of Mystery

"Bright, breezy, and laugh-aloud funny." --Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine



Book Description
Chaos hits the State University of Michigan when two bitterly rival Edith Wharton societies are brought together for the same conference. Its reluctant organizer, Professor Nick Hoffman, is desperate to get tenure, and when there's a murder, his only chance of saving his academic career is finding the killer.



From the Publisher
Critical Praise for The Edith Wharton Murders: "[A] maliciously funny campus mystery...Raphael has marvelous recall of the entertaining world he left behind." --Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review "A witty, fast-paced mystery that is also a hilarious send-up of academia at its quietly snarling worst." --Booklist "Lev Raphael skewers academic pretensions with wicked glee [and] Dickensian flair. Few writers are as adept at lampooning academic inanity." --Chicago Sun-Times "The groves of academe have never been bitchier." --Denver Post "Marvelous humor and satisfying mystery...wickedly funny." --Drood Review of Mystery "Bright, breezy, and laugh-aloud funny." --Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine


From the Author
They say academia isn't the real world, but what could more real? It has the hypocrisy of politics, the vanity of professional sports, the cruelty of organized crime, and all the humanity of big business. The enormous gaps between reality and rhetoric in this environment make it a perfect setting for satire and mystery.


About the Author
An escaped academic, Lev Raphael is the "Mysteries" columnist for the Detroit Free Press and reviews books for Michigan Radio. He lives in Okemos, Michigan.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Responding to widespread criticism that SUM is really the "State University of Men," departments across campus have been scrambling, under orders from the administration, to demonstrate their sensitivity to women's issues. So Nick, a Wharton scholar, has been chosen to mount the Wharton conference because his department chair and colleagues assume that Edith Wharton is a safe and uncontroversial writer. Unfortunately, they're wrong. Dead wrong. Wharton studies are a battleground between two viciously rival Wharton societies, one conservative, one radical - and Nick is forced to invite both groups, despite their history of bitter discord. Intruding early on into this already volatile mix is Chloe DeVore, a famous and controversial writer who just can't seem to stay away from SUM. Is DeVore coming to the conference because she has a grudge against Nick? When disaster strikes in the form of a murder, Nick has to find out who's behind the killing or his career at SUM may be over. Will Wharton's novels supply the key?

FROM THE CRITICS

Marilyn Stasio

Is vulgar literary taste sufficient motive for murder? Actually, killing is too kind for the vindictive scholars in Lev Raphael's maliciously funny campus mystery The Edith Wharton Murders, which makes clever use of a conference on Wharton ("a popular but bland and uncontentious woman writer") to satirize the intellectual jealousies and political rivalries that poison the air in academic communities. "These Wharton folks are just like gang-bangers, only they dress marginally better and they don't have drive-by shootings," according to Nick Hoffman, a Wharton bibliographer who has the unenviable job of moderating the hostilities at the State University of Michigan. After the initial skirmishes between opposing literary camps who invoke the battle spirit of Conan the Barbarian ("To crush your enemies, drive them before you, and hear the lamentation of their women"), the mayhem begins in earnest with the arrival of two celebrated and ardently loathed authors- one of whom winds up dead. For an amateur, Nick does a credible job of sorting out the victim's enemies while reserving his sympathy for those who merely despised the woman because her books had "no real style, no sense of irony, no vision." And for "an escaped academic," as the publisher describes him, Raphael has marvelous recall of the entertaining world he left behind. - The New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review

Is vulgar literary taste sufficient motive for murder? Actually, killing is too kind for the vindictive scholars in Lev Raphael's maliciously funny campus mystery The Edith Wharton Murders, which makes clever use of a conference on Wharton ("a popular but bland and uncontentious woman writer") to satirize the intellectual jealousies and political rivalries that poison the air in academic communities.

"These Wharton folks are just like gang-bangers, only they dress marginally better and they don't have drive-by shootings," according to Nick Hoffman, a Wharton bibliographer who has the unenviable job of moderating the hostilities at the State University of Michigan. After the initial skirmishes between opposing literary camps who invoke the battle spirit of Conan the Barbarian ("To crush your enemies, drive them before you, and hear the lamentation of their women"), the mayhem begins in earnest with the arrival of two celebrated and ardently loathed authors- one of whom winds up dead.

For an amateur, Nick does a credible job of sorting out the victim's enemies while reserving his sympathy for those who merely despised the woman because her books had "no real stylem no sense of irony, no vision." And for "an escaped academic," as the publisher describes him, Raphael has marvelous recall of the entertaining world he left behind.

Chicago Sun-Times

Lev Raphael skewers academic pretensions with wicked glee [and] Dickensian flair. Few writers are as adept at lampooning academic inanity.

The Denver Post

The groves of academe have never been bitchier.

Drood Review of Mystery