Charles Bentley, a professor of English at prestigious Opal College in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, is forced into retirement when the administration hires Garrison Underwood, an academic star from England, to teach his courses in American literature. Not only does this Englishman take his courses; he immediately occupies Charles’ office. After a heated exchange between them, Charles goes out to the parking lot to cool off. When he returns, he finds that someone has killed Underwood by bashing in his head with a cricket trophy, a trophy that Charles himself had thrown across the room during their quarrel not a half-hour before.
Lieutenant Joanna Thorndike, who heads the investigation, soon realizes that a number of people aside from Charles had a motive to kill Underwood. Because she rather likes Charles and appreciates his insights, he soon finds himself assisting her in the investigation. Although events prove challenging, Charles perseveres in trying to find out who murdered Underwood. Only after the investigation leads him to some discoveries about his own past and his closest relationships, does Charles find out the truth behind the body in his office.
Genre: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Amateur SleuthUsusally ranks in the 200,000 range on amazon. Sales average two or three a day and it does quite well on kindle unlimited.
Chapter One
“This is the last day of the rest of your life,” Yuri said with a benign smile.
Charles Bentley glanced at him in some alarm; then comprehension dawned.
“You mean this is the first day of the rest of my life.”
Yuri, looking stricken, fumbled a small spiral notebook out of his shirt pocket and began to write a note to himself. Although Yuri was from somewhere in the former Soviet bloc, his field of specialization was twentieth century English literature, and if the rumors that Charles had heard around the College were true, he was amazingly capable at explaining the most thorny passages of James Joyce so that even freshmen could understand and appreciate them. All that being said, however, he had terrible difficulties with American colloquialisms, and every time he got one wrong he would carefully correct himself in his notebook. Charles imagined that his desk must be filled with piles of them. But none of this self-criticism seemed to help, and he continued to make the same old errors and add new ones.
“Why would you say that?” Charles asked. “That phrase implies that somehow today is a major turning point for me.”
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Vanesa Gómez Paniza
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Author review: The translator was highly professional and completed the job in a very timely fashion. |
