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Rating: 
Summary: A new twist on an old genre
Review: "The Edith Wharton Murders" has it all---good writing, a bright and charming amateur sleuth, and a fresh and ironic take on those well-worn groves of academe. Wait---before you groan and mutter something about "another campus mystery with cutesy cartoon characters as faculty members," give this one a try. You''ll find plenty of highly UNstereotyped profs---you probably had classes with some of them, maybe even Nick Hoffman himself. New t-shirt motto: I LUV LEV!
Rating:
Summary: A new twist on an old genre
Review: "The Edith Wharton Murders" has it all---good writing, a bright and charming amateur sleuth, and a fresh and ironic take on those well-worn groves of academe. Wait---before you groan and mutter something about "another campus mystery with cutesy cartoon characters as faculty members," give this one a try. You''ll find plenty of highly UNstereotyped profs---you probably had classes with some of them, maybe even Nick Hoffman himself. New t-shirt motto: I LUV LEV!
Rating: 
Summary: A Triumph in Every Possible Way!
Review: As a mystery, Lev Raphael's EDITH WHARTON MURDERS is negligible, and that may be exactly the author's point. It's a cute idea about murder among scholars at an Edith Wharton conference held at a midwestern university. We don't learn anything particularly new or interesting about Wharton, and the participants at the powwow come off more as caricatures than characters. The book's most glaring mistake however is having an ultra-conservative campaigner for family values, a la Anita Bryant, become the president of the university's board of trustees. In this age of rampant political correctness among academics, that ain't going to happen. And Raphael beats too much on the old "Christian right" drum. If he were really attentive to these things, he would see it is the religious left posing the greatest danger right now to freedom of academic inquiry and freedom of speech. Still this is a fairly likable book. It moves fairly quickly, and the protagonist, Nick Hoffman, while hyper to the point of vibration, becomes ingratiating after awhile. I like the little verbal snapshots of Nick and his lover Stefan at home, drinking fine wines and eating luscious sounding meals. Those scenes are nicely done. But the book's greatest strength is Raphael's insight into the pettiness of much of academic life, the little jealousies, the hyping and promotion of mediocrity and obscurity. Some of his barbs in that direction made me laugh out loud and made the incredulities of the other parts more bearable and forgivable.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, It is a mystery.
Review: Naturally I expected it was a mystery with murders in the title, but reading it felt like I'd stumbled into a literary novel about writer's Angst. One writer was so obnoxiously obsessed with jealousy and envy that I immediately rooted for her to be perpetrator or victim. A bit over 1/3 of the way into the book, there was a murder and the story evolved into a proper mystery with the appearance of a traditional character, a likeable cop, Lt. Valley, and later, Angie, a criminal justice student who helped with the detecting. Nick's pardner, Stefan, is the practical down-to-earth one. The relationship reminded me of Hall's Stanley Hastings and his wife, Alice. Alice brings Stanley down to earth from time to time, too. Thankfully, there are no details of the men's intimate relations which is as it should be. The largest number of consumers of mysteries are mature women (like me) and the majority of them abhor sex scenes, be they hetero or homo. The book's ending was a very satisfactory wrap-up.
As to Wharton, she serves as catalyst for the gathering, but we are not bombarded with biographical data. If you want more, read a biography, and if you come to southern New England, visit The Mount, Edith's beautiful home in Lenox, MA.
Rating:
Summary: bet you can't read just one .....
Review: Nick Hoffman & his companion, Stefan Borowski, are academics at the State University of Michigan in Michiganopolis (read Michigan State University, East Lansing). They have some cool and far too many specious colleagues, and everybody gets caught up in the dreadful politics of academia. This series is funny & educational & interesting & thoroughly addictive. It may seem odd to compare a mystery writer to novelist Laurie Colwin, but fans of hers should check out Lev Raphael. His writing is in many ways reminiscent of hers & that's about the highest compliment I can pay any writer! THE EDITH WHARTON MURDERS, like Raphael's other two mysteries, is written intelligently, humorously, with a very good ear &, in this one, an all-too-accurate view of that bizarre phenomenon, the Academic Conference.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Awful for Words
Review: Rapahel succeeds in maing fun of the usual academic types, but a little of this goes a long way. If you're an Edith Wharton fan, resist this. There is next to nothing interesting about Wharton in this mystery, if that's what you're looking for. The novel's main problem is the characters, especially the murder suspects who come for the Edith Wharton Conference. Raphael, when it comes to solving the mystery, gives you no more clues than Agatha Christie --or maybe he gives too many, making every suspect equally plausible. In any case, there's next to no way the reader can figure it out. But why don't you care? Because Raphael doesn't give us enough information on the characters, we care neither about the dead or the living, making the mystery a very tedious little read. About the only way Raphael could make the reader care, would be to reveal that Nick Hoffman or his partner committed the murder, but if I remember correctly, this novel's narrated in the first person, so that's not even possible. Don't read this novel because of anything gay or Jewish either; unlike Raphael's work prior to turning mystery writer, these elements are very superficial --or in the case of Nick's partner's Jewishness-- forced here.
Rating:
Summary: A Triumph in Every Possible Way!
Review: This book is so accomplished and outstanding, it's hard to know where to begin. Let's start by saying the New York Times Book Review was right in reviewing this book twice! Raphael is a fine literary writer (see his dark novel Winter Eyes, for example), but he's here mastered the art of academic satire and more than holds his own with David Lodge, Robert Barnard, Jane Smiley and Amanda Cross. It's a clever and compelling mystery, too, filled with extravagantly intriguing characters. There's a powerful depiction of a stable and loving relationship, and the book also offers wonderful social satire of the Edith Wharton boom of the 1990s. The prose is finely tuned, as you'd expect from this prize-winning author. Best of all, there is the witty,caring but put-upon voice of the narrator, Nick Hoffman, the embattled composition professor. In fact, there's so much here that less attentive readers may miss its wealth--so pour a glass of your favorite wine and read slowly! The Edith Wharton Murders is proof of what acclaimed mystery novelist Barbara D'Amato has said many times: we live in a great age of mystery writers.
Rating:
Summary: Who Dunnit? Who Cares? Miserable Mystery
Review: This is most definitely the worst mystery novel I have ever read. The characters are not two-dimentional--but one-dimentional. You will not care about anyone. There is also too much padding of incidental material, and enough red herrings to stock a Shanghai fish market. Though the lead character is supposedly gay, there is only a token gay content. He might as well be a Buddist missionary. The hero and his lover share only a Jewish ceremonial meal, all other forms of intimacy in their relationship seems to have vanished. We read mystery novels to get pleasure in discovering who dunnit before the detectives. It is impossilbe to do this when essential information is not revealed to the reader until after the culprit is caught. I feel I have wasted my time here. With an eternity of reading ahead of you, the time would still be too short to bother with this one. Read Wharton's Ethan Frome instead.
Rating:
Summary: IT'S DA-LICIOUS, IT'S DA-LIGHTFUL, IT'S DA-LOVELY...
Review: What an utterly charming book! In THE EDITH WHARTON MURDERS, the second Nick Hoffman mystery, author Lev Raphael hits his stride--and it is something to behold. Witty, elegant and fun, this gay cosy (sub sub-genre?) details the murder and mayhem at an Edith Wharton conference hosted by SUM Lit professor, Nick Hoffman. Elements that irked me in the self-conscious LET'S GET CRIMINAL, the first of this original series, are noticeably missing here. For example, main characters Nick and (particularly) Stefan are fleshed out and much more likeable (scatty, enthusiastic, emotional Nick is fast developing into a classic). Their relationship is explored, and I was relieved to see some fallout over the Perry Cross affair (no healthy person takes betrayal as meekly as Nick appeared to in LET'S GET CRIMINAL). Raphael is refreshingly ruthless in targeting his murder victims from both old and new characters. He sets a lively pace and keeps his amusing cast dancing, while tantalyzing the reader with mouthwatering descriptions of good music, good food, good wine and clever conversation. And I think he makes a smart decision in keeping his mysteries non-gay specific. Nick and the reluctant Stefan are normal, attractive guys (who happen to be gay) caught up in the extraordinary occurrence of murder. It could happen to anyone--though probably not so entertainingly. I can't wait to see what mischief Nick next gets himself--and the handsome and frequently disapproving Stefan--into.
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