The Professor's Predicament

Midwest Cozy Mystery Series, Book 4

By: Dianne Harman

Narrated by: Susan Carlson

When you’re the head of the Sex Therapy Department at a university and you find out your husband has been having an affair - actually, a lot of affairs - it’s not a good day.

How can you continue to counsel people about their marriage when you’ve missed all the red flags in your own?

That's Professor Deborah White’s predicament. And the predicament becomes a crisis when a beautiful young coed is murdered. Deborah’s husband, Geoffrey White, an English professor at the university, had selected the coed to help him with “special assignments”, which were usually conducted in a sleazy motel room.

There’s no lack of suspects in the murder. Was it Deborah’s philandering husband? Or the coed’s boyfriend, Dylan? Or even a past lover of Geoffrey’s who was jealous because he was having an affair with the coed? And Deborah herself certainly has to be considered as a suspect, since the police always suspect the spouse in cases like this. Each one has a very good motive for murdering the young woman, but which one did it?

As a favor to her friend Deborah, Kat Denham tries to identify and catch the killer. However, there’s one little problem. There’s a good chance Kat will be murdered before she finds the killer.

This is the fourth book in the popular Midwest Cozy Mystery Series by a two-time USA Today best-selling author.

©2018 Dianne Harman (P)2022 Dianne Harman

Conflicted

I was engaged from the beginning. I didn't care for some of the narration and as the story went obvious, it ended up being laid out so systematically that I quickly pegged the whodunit. There were characters that I enjoyed, characters that I loved to hate, and story lines that I enjoyed. I'm in the middle of the road on this one.

Professor’s Predicament

Kat’s in the middle of a new mystery in this book. Kat is actually an author of some steamy type books, but she somehow seems to find herself in the middle of a murder mystery. Kat’s friend Deborah has a cheating husband. And there’s some questionable young women he’s fooling around with. And since it’s all taking place on a college campus, it’s causing quite a commotion. And then someone is found murdered. There are a lot of triangles and suspects surrounding this mystery. The narration of the audiobook was done well and easy to listen to.

What’s the appeal of such a sleazy guy?

Which professor’s predicament does the title refer to? Is it selfish serial predator English professor, his clueless wife who is a University Dean, or the English professor’s colleague? The story was well written but the characters are so unpalatable. It was well known at the University that Geoffrey White was abusing his university position and cheating on his spouse for years with many young co-eds. Why wasn’t he stopped before the victim in the book was murdered and others were almost murdered? Kat is thankful for Blane, who says Geoffrey set a low bar - that’s an understatement! Dianne Harmon’s book is well written and elicited strong emotions. The narration seemed a bit too upbeat for such serious issues. This book is the 4th in the Midwest Cozy Mystery Series. A recommended read!

selfish people

Jeffrey's arrogance and greed were legendary and it sickened me. He was beyond being a user of people at epic proportions. So many possible villains, but I was centered on the actual one with a few clues. Good mystery. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator was okay, but seemed too perky for this material.