College Murders

The author of the acclaimed true-crime memoir, The Kill Jar, tells the inside story of the “University of Idaho Murders,” offering a memorable, thoughtful dive into our societal fascination with true crime, the media’s seeming blood-frenzy, and the future of homicide investigations, while cultivating an intimate look into the minds and hearts of the victims and their suspected killer alike.

Sussex, 1958: A radiant Flora is being twirled across the dancefloor by her dashing new husband, Jack. It’s the perfect wedding in Abbeymead, until a mysterious stranger is found dead just outside the village. But when Flora finds an envelope tucked into the man’s silver cigarette case, the address is key to discovering the poor chap’s name–Russell Farr. He isn’t known to any of the villagers, so at first all signs point to a tragic accident. That is, until they discover Farr previously worked at the esteemed Cleve College, where Jack is now a writer-in-residence.

An invitation from a liberal arts college to buy their mystery-novel collection comes as a welcome surprise for Raymond Ambler, crime-fiction curator at New York City's 42nd Street Library. But his pleasure quickly turns sour when the collection's curator—Sam Abernathy—tells him he plans to fight the acquisition tooth and nail. The collection would make a fine addition to his holdings, but Ambler's not looking for drama. But just a couple of weeks later, one of Abernathy's colleagues is shot dead from the library's roof, and all signs point to the crime-loving professor as the perpetrator.

A dead colleague isn't the best way to start a semester, or a romance. Although Sheridan Hendley is not a sleuth, when her colleague is murdered, she assists the detective in gathering information.

It’s 1805, and as a result of two tragic incidents, the legend of the ghost of Bowdoin College is born. Over a century and a half later, Bowdoin graduate Vincent Mark, a young lawyer who works for The Sterling Works in New York City, is reeling from a series of suspicious deaths of the senior officers at Sterling.

On a dark winter’s night in January 1898, the head cowman at the Express Dairy Company’s College Farm was shot dead. The picturesque dairy farm located on Regent’s Park Road in Finchley provided the unlikely crime scene. The victim, Thomas Webb, had no known enemies but eerily had predicted the shocking event.