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American Dean James is a wonderful humorous writer with a light touch, as shown in his priceless Simon Kirby-Jones series, where a gay American vampire has taken up residence in the English village of Snupperton Mumsley. He also has a second string to his bow in the form of a series set closer to home. DEATH BY DISSERTATION is set in the fictitious Rice University in Houston. It's perfectly readable, mildly diverting, but lacks the Unique Selling Point of the vampire series. In fact, it's fairly standard gay rites of passage stuff with student Andy Carpenter trying to deal with the reappearance of an old friend, but finding himself embroiled in a murder enquiry. Andy's a graduate history student and he and his friend Maggie McLendon find themselves trying to work out who killed the bright but thoroughly obnoxious student Charlie Harper after Andy literally stumbles over the body. But Andy finds himself badly distracted by the presence of Rob Hayward, a boyhood friend from whom he parted on considerably more than bad terms after Rob reacted violently to Andy's homosexuality. Meanwhile, more bodies pile up, and I can guarantee you'll guess each time who's for the chop -- James tends to signal a bit too obviously that X or Y has no chance of reaching the end of the book! DEATH BY DISSERTATION is one of those books where there's a few too many characters and you're never quite sure if you have them clear in your head. Most of the female characters seem to look alike, which is terribly convenient for the plotting, but not so much fun for the faintly bemused reader. What James does do, though, is make excellent use of the university setting. Spooky library stacks and interminable corridors and people working to all hours make for juicy crime fiction territory, and James utilises it to the full in the closing scenes which will have you turning the pages rapidly.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, June 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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