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With "ebullience and good humor," the award-winning author brings back former detective Homer Kelly, now a Harvard professor, to solve a killing on campus (Eudora Welty).An explosion rocks the foundations of Harvard University's stately Memorial Hall. Built a century ago to honor alumni who died defending the Union in the Civil War, the hall is a focal point of the campus. Now it is a crime scene. A corpulent body is found inside, decapitated by the blast. The dead man is Hamilton Dow, show more conductor of the school orchestra and one of the most beloved men on campus. The university's president, James Cheever, couldn't be more pleased. Dow had opposed every one of Cheever's attempts to improve and enlarge Harvard, and this terrible accident means that Cheever's path to complete domination of the campus is clear. But was it an accident? Homer Kelly, Harvard professor and occasional sleuth, is not so sure. Cheever was not the only man on campus who wanted Dow dead, and as Homer looks for the culprit he finds a terrible secret behind the bombing that turned the Civil War memorial into a tomb. show less
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A bomb goes off in Memorial Hall at Harvard during a rehearsal for the Messiah. The conductor is found somewhat mutilated and dead. There are bombings occurring in other parts of New England, but the group responsible for those did not claim responsibility for this one. Who is responsible for the bombing? Are things as they seem? Homer Kelly, a visiting professor at Harvard, gets involved because of his previous assistance to police in their investigations and at the request of one of the professor's students. This is an engaging installment in the Homer Kelly series. With each chapter prefaced by parts of the score and with the author's own illustrations, one can't go wrong with this one.
Being a musician, there is nothing better than mixing music and murder! I ran across this author when I read Divine Inspiration, where the murder was involved in the death of an organist - I being one, was fascinated. Langton pulled another great book with murder and choral music - in this book, the selection was Handel's Messiah being performed by a choral group at Harvard. I enjoyed this book! Homer Kelly, a retired investigator, has become one of my favorite fumbling characters - reminiscent of Columbo! This book was definitely a page turner, and would highly recommend to any of you mystery readers!
Well, I learned a lot that I didn't know about Memorial Hall, where Sanders Theatre is located. More high-jinx about academics, fairly evil ones too.
Murder in a Harvard basement--affectionate, compelling, obvious, improbable--all in one
1987 reprint
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Author Information
34+ Works 8,929 Members
Jane Langton was born Jane Gillson in Belmont, Massachusetts on December 30, 1922. She received a bachelor's degree in art history in 1944 and a master's degree in art history in 1945 from the University of Michigan. She received a second master's degree in art history from Radcliffe College in 1948. She studied at the Boston Museum School from show more 1958 to 1959. Her writing career began with children's books. Her first book, The Majesty of Grace, was published in 1961. She illustrated several of her children's books. She wrote a young adult series entitled the Hall Family Chronicles. The fourth book in the series, The Fledgling, was a Newbery Honor book. She also wrote an adult mystery series entitled the Homer Kelly mysteries. The fifth book in the series, Emily Dickinson Is Dead, received a Nero Wolfe Award and an Edgar Award. In 2017, she received the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award for the series. She died from complications of a respiratory condition on December 22, 2018 at the age of 95. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1978
- People/Characters
- Homer Kelly; Freddy Fulsom; Ham Dow; Mary Kelly (Homer's wife); Victoria Van Horn; President James Cheever
- Important places
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
- First words
- The biggest noise wasn't the muffled sound of the explosion. It was the fall of shattered glass from the rose windows.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 245
- Popularity
- 132,110
- Reviews
- 5
- Rating
- (3.62)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 7
