Author's guest post at my blog:
https://bookfare.blogspot.com/2021/10/foodfic-please-welcome-cynthia-kuhn.html

2.5 stars

I guess this book was okay, but I found it kind of condescending and not nearly as tightly-told as it could have been. There were a lot of extraneous details that the author though should be included to flesh out the characters but that didn’t do much for the story and I didn’t really think they were necessary.

The police were made to look like imbeciles. I’m not sure if that was the intention. There were also quite a few melodramatic plot elements that I had to raise an eyebrow at e.g. secret societies, daggers with symbols, the bad guy confessing while threatening to kill everyone… .

It probably didn’t help that I came off another cozy mystery that I thought held together a lot better even though there were still some elements that I suppose I could have taken exception to ([b:A Pint of Murder|16038690|A Pint of Murder (A Madoc and Janet Rhys Mystery)|Alisa Craig|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348241367s/16038690.jpg|659425] by Charlotte MacLeod).

I’m giving it an extra half star because the feminist themes in the book have merit although I don’t think they were presented in a particularly interesting manner or utilized as well as they could have been. ( )

As with 95% of all Henery Press books, I enjoyed Semester of Our Discontent. Served with a dash of crazysauce, this mystery was a very fast read.

Lila Maclean is a new professor at a prestigious university, learning the ropes and trying to avoid crossing the wrong people. Unfortunately, one of those not-to-be-crossed ends up dead, discovered by poor Lila herself.

She ends up being the focus of the police detective on the case, and for once, he does not turn into a romantic lead. Not that I mind that terribly, just that when he appeared on the scene, I thought that is where the story was headed.

Some of the supporting characters were kooky, others lacked a touch of depth, but everyone remained consistent, which I appreciate.

A very fast and enjoyable read.


**eARC Netgalley** ( )

Lila Maclean is a first-term professor at Stonedale University in Colorado, and happy to be there. After a contentious meeting with her department chair, Roland Higgins, wherein he basically told her to keep her mouth shut and listen, while still expecting her to publish on a regular basis in order to eventually - perhaps - receive tenure. Afterward, her cousin Calista James, who is another professor, tells her not to worry about it and continue on. But a short time later when Lila and her assigned mentor, Judith Westerly, enter department library for a scheduled faculty meeting, they find Roland dead - with a knife embedded in his chest.

It is not too long after that the murder weapon is discovered to be the same one which was once in the possession of her cousin. And when Calista is arrested and charged with the murder, Lila knows she's not guilty and decides to help her any way she can. Then Judith is attacked and left unconscious in her own home while hosting a faculty party, and Lila notices the same design on both weapons: the knife and a very heavy book that was used to hit Judith; and starts to question people, although she doesn't get anywhere, and even though she's convinced Calista knows something, no one will tell her anything.

It isn't long before, as they say, the plot thickens, and she's convinced someone is trying to either frame her or kill her, too. With a detective that's suspicious about her involvement, Lila finds she's in a race against time to save her cousin and her own neck...

For myself, I didn't like either Roland or his brother, their misogynist attitudes grating on me to the point where I wanted to slap either of them on the back of their heads; a testament to the writing ability of Ms. Kuhn; who brings us a new protagonist I hope to see more of in future books. The ending was enough of a surprise with a twist that fit believably into the plot, and giving us a satisfying conclusion to a good mystery. Highly recommended.

Full Review: http://joannesbooks.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-semester-of-our-discontent-lila.htm... ( )

This is a shorter-length novel, coming in at only 227 pages, but it was a great read; rather than feeling like it was too short or sparsely detailed, it felt tightly written and evenly paced.

Lila is a newly-minted Ph.D. starting her first semester as a junior English Lit professor at a posh University in Colorado. Her desire to introduce a course focusing on the Mystery genre brings her the ire of her department chair - a man so far up his own backside he makes Entitled White Males look tolerant. So of course, he ends up dead. But soon there are more attacks and more deaths, and the wrong person(s) arrested, so Lila finds herself searching for answers.

This is the kind of mystery I like best: the protagonist doesn't go all Nancy Drew on our butts, but just does what she does best. She listens, she researches, she might, possibly, go down in the basement, but in fairness, it wasn't in the middle of the night.

The author did a fantastic job with the setting and with the characters; I could keep track of them all and I could see the story unfolding movie-like through bonfires, costume parties, jails, etc. So far there's no love triangle, although I was a smidgen disappointed with the direction the almost non-existent romance went in.

The murder plot was fun (if you know what I mean); it was well done and I SO did not see that ending coming, but there were some elements here that were a homage to old-style murder mysteries. The throwbacks are what made the story fun.

Really an excellent start from a new author and I'm really looking forward to getting the second one. ( )