Title: Shade
Author: H N Hirsch
Genre: Murder Mystery, LGBTQ Mystery
Book Blurb:
A modern murder mystery. Assistant Professor Marcus George, a young, gay Harvard faculty member striving to find his footing in the Ivy League, is drawn into investigating the murder of one of his former students, the son of an elite Massachusetts family. Centered on the tense, competitive world of academic politics, the narrative vividly captures the publish-or-perish standards of academia, the strictures of life in exclusive enclaves in Boston and Kennebunkport, and the gay subculture along the New England coast. As he investigates the murder, Marcus stumbles across academic and financial corruption that could ruin several lives -- even as he falls into a tender and heartwarming love affair that will change his own. Hirsch's first novel is a beautifully realized, gripping tale in the classic style of the murder mystery genre.
My Review:
A really well-crafted murder mystery set way back in 1985. I have been told that was a happening time and I am starting to take that word for truth. This is a murder mystery that is set with the backdrop of the original Aids epidemic.
This is a same sex romance that is very realistic. Marcus and Bob have a beautiful relationship that grows through the book. As Mr. N is apt to say, if you have an issue with a same sex romance, you have bigger problems then not wanting to read this book.
This book is ‘murder the professor investigated’. A complex mystery that will keep the reader guessing. I just got so involved in the mystery I was thinking about it while I walked to and from work. Once I got into this book, it was hard to put down. The characters are well crafted and real. This book just feels real and won't disappoint.
If you are ape over great mysteries, then this book is for you. An eye-opening look at a time before the internet and smartphones. Historical to me, a blast from the past for others. I'd say read this book because it's a rad read.
My Rating: 5 stars
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Author Biography:
A graduate of the University of Michigan, with advanced degrees from Princeton University, H.N. Hirsch is the Erwin N. Griswold Professor of Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College in Ohio, where he also held a joint appointment from 2005-2014 in Comparative American Studies; served as Acting Chair of the Department of Politics in 2010-2011; and was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, 2005-06. He began his career at Harvard, where he was Head Tutor in the Department of Government; he later served as Director of the Legal Studies Program at Macalester College; and chaired the Department of Political Science at the University of California at San Diego and at Macalester. He is the author or editor of Office Hours: One Academic Life (2016); A Theory of Liberty: The Constitution and Minorities (1992); and The Enigma of Felix Frankfurter (1981/2014); and editor of The Future of Gay Rights in America (2005). Among his areas of legal expertise are Constitutional law and jurisprudence; modern political theory; and gender and sexuality.
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Reviewed by: Sam (with assistance from Mr. N)