From Publishers Weekly
A talented journalism student is murdered because of her investigation into three old, unsolved crimes in this third, fairly routine Henrie O mystery (Scandal in Fair Haven, 1994). Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, a widowed newspaperwoman, teaches journalism at Thorndyke University in Missouri. Her student Maggie Winslow is found dead in the Lovers' Lane where two undergraduates were murdered 10 years earlier. Henrie O decides to find Maggie's killer but first must discover which of the old crimes Maggie was probing led to her murder: the 1988 Lovers' Lane murders; the shooting of local businessman Curt Murdoch in 1982; or the 1976 disappearance of Dean of Students Darryl Nugent. Following Maggie's trail, Henrie O searches through newspaper files and interviews old witnesses and new suspects, including a womanizing journalist and his angry wife; a high-living English professor and his father-in-law, a novelist; and the cold, controlling president of Thorndyke. Henrie O makes accusations in a process of elimination and places herself in jeopardy before she solves the crimes, to the embarrassment of the university powers-that-be, an eventuality that strongly suggests that Henrie O's next adventure won't be set in Missouri. Henrie O fans will surely enjoy this latest adventure, although Hart's Death on Demand series, featuring bookstore owner Annie Darling, better illustrates her light touch and humor. 35,000 first printing; author tour. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Compared favorably to Christie's Jane Marple, sixtyish amateur sleuth Henrie O investigates murder once again. When one of her journalism students at Thorndyke University is murdered after suggesting a report on three unsolved campus-related murders, Henrie feels compelled to uncover the truth. Watch for demand.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In this third installment in Hart's series featuring journalist-sleuth Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, our heroine--now a university journalism professor in Missouri--must investigate the death of a student who was, herself, investigating three long-unsolved murder cases for a story she was writing for the university daily. Was the murder of a couple on Lover's Lane connected to the disappearance of a journalism professor, or to the fall of a student from a campus tower? And were any of these murders linked to the strangling of student investigative reporter Maggie Winslow? If Hart's protagonist, "Henrie O," doesn't yet bear the immortal stamp of Jane Marple, more then a little of Christie's gift for plotting and suspense can be found in this intricately wrought tale. Alan Moores


From Kirkus Reviews
A third appearance for onetime news reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins (Scandal in Fair Haven, 1994, etc.)--Henrie O to friends and colleagues--a 60ish, widowed, financially independent, and nontenured professor at the Journalism School of Thorndyke University in Derry Hills, Missouri. Here, Henrie O has encouraged Maggie Winslow, a clever, cocky student, in the project the girl had set for herself--the investigation of the town's three unsolved mysteries, one going back 20 years. Maggie's first move is an ad for Clarion, the newspaper for both campus and town, asking for information on the old cases. Days later, Maggie is dead, found strangled in the Lovers' Lane, where a young student-couple were shot to death eight years earlier, the killer never found. Henrie O, feeling responsible for Maggie's death, determines to retrace the steps she had taken in pursuit of her story. Meanwhile, dour Lt. Urschel has arrested Rita Duffy, jealous wife of Clarion's philandering editor Dennis Duffy, following a nasty scene she'd made about Maggie at the Clarion offices on the day of the killing. But Henrie O is convinced the murderer is still at large. By the time she's proved it, the highest levels of the university hierarchy have been broached and a long-delayed justice has been achieved. Complex and suspenseful, written in a Christie-for-the-'90s style, this is a many-faceted exploration of campus life, ego trips, diverse personalities, and puzzle pieces finally made to fit. (First printing of 35,000; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
A Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter and journalism teacher at ivy-covered Thorndyke University, Henrietta "Henrie O" Collins demands of her students the same steadfast dedication to the truth that was the cornerstone of her own illustrious career. So when beautiful, ambitious Maggie Winslow decides to investigate a trio of hitherto unresolved local crimes, Henrie O urges her to pursue the story with uncommon vigor. But the gifted future journalist's zeal may have cost her her life. The next day Maggie's corpse is discovered in Lovers' Lane--the very site of one of the unsolved mysteries the extraordinary young woman was exploring at the time of her brutal, premature death. The police and the Thorndyke powers-that-be are rabidly against Henrie O's involvement in the case. But, for Maggie's sake, the stubborn, sixtysomething investigator is determined to dredge up a past everyone seems to want to keep buried even if it means placing herself firmly in a relentless killer's path.


About the Author
A recognized master of mystery and spinetingling suspense, Carolyn Hart has written four previous Henrie O mysteries: Dead Man's Island(an Agatha Award winner). Scandal in Fair Haven (nominated for both an Agatha and Macavity Award), Death in Lover's Lane, and Death in Paradise. She has been nominated for and has won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards for the books in her popular Death on Demand series, and is one of the founders of Sisters in Crime. Mrs. Hart lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


Excerpted from Death in Lovers' Lane : A Henrie O Mystery by Carolyn G. Hart. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter One"Waking up alone has all the excitement of interviewing a hamster breeder. And none of the action." Jimmy's tone was cheerful, but ,I didn't miss the message."We've brought each other some comfort there, these last few years." I chose my words carefully and kept my voice light.The silence on the line built.I could picture Jimmy in his hotel room in Los Angeles. Tall and lanky. In Levi's and a sports shirt. He would be draped casually over an easy chair, a book open on the coffee table. His face is long and lanky, too, with that deadpan quality that often fools those he interviews into thinking him placid, perhaps a tad obtuse. It wasn't a mistake they'd make twice.Jimmy likes gourmet meals, art museums, small. towns, and parties where people know each other.No wonder he felt lonely,Los Angeles is a sprawl of broken dreams and lost opportunities, disconnected souls and entertainment junkies. The sunny skies and graceful palms don't redeem jammed roadways to nowhere.But it wasn't simply that he was in L.A. on a book tour."Henrie 0." Jimmy's voice is a pleasant tenor. A nice voice. A nice man. An old friend. A sometime lover. "Henrie 0, I've been looking at a house in Cuernavaca. You'd like it." Eagerness ran the words together. "I've been wanting to tell you about it. I'm going down there next week. I want you to come with me."He paused.Suddenly, I knew what was coming. And I was totally unprepared.Since we'd both been widowed and become reacquainted, we'd taken a number of holidays together. And enjoyed them and each other. But "Henrie 0, I want to build a life there. With you. As my wife.""Jimmy..." I didn't know what, to say. I'd not. thought about where we were going. I'd not actually ,thought we were going anywhere. I'd seen our occasional meetings-Acapulco, New York. Paris, Charlotte Amalie -- as interludes: sensual, satisfying, self-contained; a lovely enhancement but not a basic component of my life.Yet I've never seen myself as an opportunist. Certainly not in connection with people for whom I have great respect and liking. I'd just never figured Jimmy Lennox into the equation of my life. At least not on a permanent basis."Think about it, Henrie 0." The words were still casual, but his voice grew huskier. "We'd have fun. You know that.""I know that." But there is a world of difference between occasional liaisons and a permanent commitment."I'll be here until a week from Friday."And that was all. I was left holding a buzzing, line.As I walked briskly across the campus, I saw it with a more thoughtful gaze. This had been a beating place for me, after Richard's death. We are none of us ever prepared for the loss of a beloved partner. When the loss comes without warning, the devastation is complete.Richard's last call had ended, "I'll be home Monday. Love you, sweetheart."But when Monday came, Richard, my surefooted, athletic, graceful Richard was dead from a fall down a rugged cliff. He came home from the island paradise of Kauai in a coffin.One day I'd been Mrs. Richard Collins. The next I was a widow, a widow remembering how bitterly she'd grudged his island visit.Nothing softens that kind of loss.The common wisdom urges no changes for a year. I'd stayed in our Washington apartment, but the joy was gone.Millay's verse was a refrain in my heart:Oh, there will pass with your great passing Little of beauty not your own. Only the light from common water. Only the grace from simple stone!Richard and I, had freelanced for a number of years. We'd taken assignments where and when we wanted, as long as we could work together. Without Richard, none of it mattered. It was months later when a good friend who taught journalism called on me to take over her classes while she recuperated from a broken hip.So I'd come to the little town of Derry Hills, Missouri, to Thorndyke University, and joined an unusual faculty made up primarily of retired professionals.That was, four years ago.Now Derry Hills was home, or as close to home as a wanderer would ever know. Tborndyke was a thriving, prosperous school. I liked the weathered limestone and ivy-laden brick buildings, the curving paths among towering oaks and sycamores, the old redbrick bell tower.Most of all, I enjoyed seeing students, young, old, scruffy, well-dressed, smiling, scowling, but all of them purposeful; going somewhere fast. It might be to a class or the mailroom or for a beer, but they were racing ahead. And whether they knew, it or not-and many of them did they were starting the lives they would one day lead, building the habits of success or failure, happiness or despair.I relished being a part of that. I enjoyed this hilly, wooded Missouri terrain, the misty curtains of fog in autumn, the crunch of snow underfoot in winter, the gentle greening in spring. I found each season invigorating, especially winter. But, I always move swiftly, no matter the season, a woman in a huffy though the days of huffy are past.It wasn't simply the beauty of the campus that pleased me, though it was spectacular now as the November leaves blazed. In some ways, I was like in old dog luxuriating in a sunny spot, drawing strength from the vitality that surrounded me. An almost seismic sense of expectation emanates from a college campus. That is the true elixir of youth...

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A half-century of newspaper experience has left Pulitzer Prize-winning ex-reporter Henrietta "Henrie O" Collins uniquely qualified to teach journalism at ivy-covered Thorndyke University in Derry Hills, Missouri. And she demands of her students the same steadfast dedication to the truth that was the cornerstone of her own illustrious career. So when beautiful, ambitious and abrasive Maggie Winslow approaches her with an idea for an investigative series - a new look at three unrelated and hitherto unsolved local crimes - Henrie O urges the tenacious budding reporter to pursue the story with uncommon vigor. But Maggie's zeal may have cost her her life. The next day her corpse is discovered - at the very site of one of the trio of crimes the extraordinary young woman was investigating at the time of her death. The police call Maggie's murder a crime of passion and arrest an appropriate suspect. But Henrie O doubts that justice has been properly served. Perhaps Maggie was asking too many questions about a decade-old double homicide...or about the disappearance years ago of a popular dean...or about the unsolved shooting of a local businessman. And perhaps someone who killed before has killed again.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

A talented journalism student is murdered because of her investigation into three old, unsolved crimes in this third, fairly routine Henrie O mystery (Scandal in Fair Haven, 1994). Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, a widowed newspaperwoman, teaches journalism at Thorndyke University in Missouri. Her student Maggie Winslow is found dead in the Lovers' Lane where two undergraduates were murdered 10 years earlier. Henrie O decides to find Maggie's killer but first must discover which of the old crimes Maggie was probing led to her murder: the 1988 Lovers' Lane murders; the shooting of local businessman Curt Murdoch in 1982; or the 1976 disappearance of Dean of Students Darryl Nugent. Following Maggie's trail, Henrie O searches through newspaper files and interviews old witnesses and new suspects, including a womanizing journalist and his angry wife; a high-living English professor and his father-in-law, a novelist; and the cold, controlling president of Thorndyke. Henrie O makes accusations in a process of elimination and places herself in jeopardy before she solves the crimes, to the embarrassment of the university powers-that-be, an eventuality that strongly suggests that Henrie O's next adventure won't be set in Missouri. Henrie O fans will surely enjoy this latest adventure, although Hart's Death on Demand series, featuring bookstore owner Annie Darling, better illustrates her light touch and humor. 35,000 first printing; author tour. (Feb.)

Library Journal

Compared favorably to Christie's Jane Marple, sixtyish amateur sleuth Henrie O investigates murder once again. When one of her journalism students at Thorndyke University is murdered after suggesting a report on three unsolved campus-related murders, Henrie feels compelled to uncover the truth. Watch for demand.

Kirkus Reviews

A third appearance for onetime news reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins (Scandal in Fair Haven, 1994, etc.)—Henrie O to friends and colleagues—a 60ish, widowed, financially independent, and nontenured professor at the Journalism School of Thorndyke University in Derry Hills, Missouri. Here, Henrie O has encouraged Maggie Winslow, a clever, cocky student, in the project the girl had set for herself—the investigation of the town's three unsolved mysteries, one going back 20 years. Maggie's first move is an ad for Clarion, the newspaper for both campus and town, asking for information on the old cases. Days later, Maggie is dead, found strangled in the Lovers' Lane, where a young student-couple were shot to death eight years earlier, the killer never found. Henrie O, feeling responsible for Maggie's death, determines to retrace the steps she had taken in pursuit of her story. Meanwhile, dour Lt. Urschel has arrested Rita Duffy, jealous wife of Clarion's philandering editor Dennis Duffy, following a nasty scene she'd made about Maggie at the Clarion offices on the day of the killing. But Henrie O is convinced the murderer is still at large. By the time she's proved it, the highest levels of the university hierarchy have been broached and a long-delayed justice has been achieved.

Complex and suspenseful, written in a Christie-for-the-'90s style, this is a many-faceted exploration of campus life, ego trips, diverse personalities, and puzzle pieces finally made to fit.

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