Monday, February 13, 2012

The Probability Of Murder-Ada Madison

The Probability Of Murder


Ada Madison

Berkley, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425246672



In Massachusetts, Henley College Math Department hosts this week’s soiree by celebrating the birthday of August Ferdinand Moebius. Statistics Professor Dr. Sophie Knowles thinks only mathematicians would commemorate a centuries-dead colleague, but that is safer than the olfactory senses abused by the chemistry department.



The event becomes marred when she learns her friend Charlotte Crocker the popular librarian was murdered in the Emily Dickson Library. Sophie’s significant other Shock, Trauma & Air Rescue MEDVAC pilot Bruce Granville provides her with some comfort. Charlotte’s student aid Hannah Stephens found the corpse Homicide Detective Virgil Mitchell leads the investigation which includes questioning the members of the club at A Hill Of Beads; which includes the victim and Sophie. Understanding The Square Root of Murder, Sophie investigates before a second homicide occurs.



This is enjoyable academic amateur sleuth filled with puzzlers, brain teasers and mathematician quotations. The cozy storyline is entertaining as the heroine conducts her inquiry following the Socratic method, which leads to her being a potential subtrahend. Although her motive for her probing is overly used by the sub-genre, fans will appreciate Sophie’s inquiry as she adds the clues and subtracts the red herrings to try to extrapolate the identity of the killer before she becomes a cold statistic.



Harriet Klausner

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