The Poison Ivy Murders

Rating:
Summary: Suspense at Fields University
Review: Poison Ivy Murders proves that William H. Reid has mastered the tools of a good writer. His total concept of writing is second to none.

A gruesome campus murder opens a keg of worms in this small New Hampshire town. Reid's book moves fast as Mike Thatcher goes about in his quest to bring the murderer to justice. His investigation instills fear into the entire University faculty, staff, professors, and several Petersborough citizens. What are they hiding?

Two decades ago, Thatcher himself attended Fields University. His love life is on hold but his detective work has now turned up skeletons from his own past.

Mr. Reid's first hand knowledge of Universities gave him an edge on Poison Ivy Murders. This book is exciting, thrilling, and keeps the reader in suspense. It is well written by a master and suggested for adult reading.

Rating:
Summary: With biological twists and turns
Review: William Reid is a scientist, has taught biology in the academic venue, and has taught in Israel. Like any academic, writing was probably something he did in the course of his duties, but he is now going at it full-tilt. His prior offerings include: Eagles Watch and North of Nowhere.

Mike Thatcher is a art graduate of Fields University. He works on the local police force, when he is not taking care of his two children and mother. But when an anatomy professor at Fields is found disemboweled, Mike springs into action as the acute investigator that he is. The faculty are an argumentative and petty lot, but one of them brings back upsetting memories for Mike. The murders continue to pile up, in a disconcertingly personal way as several professors are killed in ways which relate to their fields of research:

"'The important thing is that three of four people have been murdered in a way that, well, fits. The anatomist gets gutted, the aquatic biologist is drowned, and a very big snake catches the herpetologist by the nose.' Derek nodded. 'Three out of four is a relationship, yes.' 'Even Joe's murder was appropriate to his life.'"

The Poison Ivy Murders is written with wit and insight. Mr. Reid presents the academic community as the ivory tower that it is, with some care taken for the jealousies and divisions that spring up between people who are forced to work together for decades. Using his knowledge of various branches of biology, Mr. Reid presents the reader with a Mel Gibson type of hero in Mike Thatcher (square jaw line; great bod) who is struggling to come to terms with his own past, even as he has to face some very unpleasant truths. Mike solves the murder, of course, and the reader is treated to a plot with enough biological twists and turns to resemble some of the best horror and mystery writers of our time. It's also really funny!

Mr. Reid's character portraits are fresh and lovingly drawn. His plot sizzles and keeps the reader on edge. He knows his subject and treats the reader to the world of academic and biology. The ending is somewhat of a surprise, and the denouement is right on the money. All in all, The Poison Ivy Murders is a wonderful effort that contributes much to the mystery genre.

Shelley Glodowski
Reviewer