From Publishers Weekly
In Raphael's disappointing fourth book featuring untenured professor and amateur detective Nick Hoffman, Juno Dromgoole, an English professor at the State University of Michigan, wants to find out who's been harassing her with anonymous phone calls urging her to "Get out!" and to become chair (the "alpha bitch") of her department. So she turns to her colleague Nick for help. The Glock-owning Juno hardly seems to need Nick or anyone else; she's got more balls than 99% of her colleagues, whom she dismisses as "a bunch of whiners and weasels." This dysfunctional tribe of academics represents the possible suspects, and while several are clearly capable of a threatening phone call, none seems to have the guts or the motive for the (mildly) escalating violence. Raphael pads the story with other conflicts: Will Nick get tenure? Should he buy a gun of his own? Is he attracted to the Amazonian Juno? (Not a trivial question for a gay man in a committed relationship.) It would take a more resourceful, less ambivalent hero to rescue Juno or this thinly plotted novel. Nick is almost as annoying as his petty, inarticulate colleagues. Their heated debates are more reminiscent of playground squabbles than intellectual disputes. Satirizing the academic world is one of the author's big themes, but it's a tired premise in this inexplicably titled book. Raphael doesn't generate enough narrative momentum or suspense to hold the reader's interest as the novel grinds to its abrupt, unsatisfying ending. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Raphael proceeds down a path he started in the last Nick Hoffman mystery, Little Miss Evil (2000). That book was almost over before someone was murdered. This time the corpse never shows up, and Nick voices Raphael's seeming preference for slowly- building suspense rather than bodies. Suspense arises from a variety of sources, and readers may find partnered, gay Nick's mid-life lusting for a woman more engrossing than the mysterious accumulation of injuries done to him and the object of his sexual fantasies--tall, voluptuous Juno. Will Nick act on his fantasies? For that matter, will untenured Nick even stay on at the State University of Michigan, Raphael's take on academic hell, where professors are reduced to whining subservience by administrators who, like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, hand down sentences before verdicts? Sexual and academic tensions fascinate Raphael more than the phone threats and beatings of the mystery element of the book, leaving readers to wonder whether he is defining a new genre. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Seattle Times, Oct. 21, 2001
"Wickedly funny."
Washington Post Book World
This series has always been distinguished for its irreverent academic wit and hip social observations. Antic and provocative.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 21, 2001
"Lev Raphael is one of the most sophisticated mystery authors alive,and Burning Down the House is witty and charming."
Lansing State Journal, October 21, 2001
"With biting wit, sarcasm and clever barbs, Raphael is in fine form as one of America's best academic mystery authors."
Los Angeles Times, October 28, 2001
"Raphael is a social satirist. . . .the material is clever and sharp."
Book Description
Nick Hoffman's State University of Michigan is a place where the Borgias and the Marx Brothers would be equally at home. Heading into the Christmas season, SUM is being torn apart by bizarre attempts to make it more diverse while an autocratic new provost pushes for a White Studies program and Nick faces not only a tenure battle but conflicting requests for support in a battle for department chair. With his professional life a mix of seasonal chaos and departmental warfare, Nick discovers that he's not only attracted to the outrageously sexy Juno Dromgoole and disturbed by these disorienting new feelings in his life, but also the target, along with Juno, of a vicious harassment campaign that escalates into stalking, assault, and attempted murder. There's certainly no shortage of suspects, only solid clues. The decisions Nick faces may change his life forever...if he survives.
About the Author
LEV RAPHAEL is a prize-winning short story writer, novelist, and critic. He lives in Michigan, and is the mystery review columnist for the Detroit Free Press and the book critic for National Public Radio's The Todd Mundt Show. He also reviews for the Washington Post and Jerusalem Report. Also available from Walker & Company are two earlier Nick Hoffman novels, The Death of a Constant Lover and Little Miss Evil.
Excerpted from Burning Down the House : A Nick Hoffman Novel by Lev Raphael. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From Chapter One: "You bought a gun?" My department at the State University of Michigan at Michiganapolis was not a place where they made mountains out of molehills--they made volcanoes, and you never knew when the next eruption was due. But despite that combustibility I was still shocked by Juno Dromgoole's announcement when she had me over for dinner on a mild early December night. And so I asked her twice. "You bought a gun? You really bought a gun?" Juno nodded and set down her wine glass. "Of course I did. Teaching here is too dangerous. How else can I protect myself?" Having shared this news, Juno calmly took another sip of Kenwood zinfandel. "But, Juno, don't you think getting a gun is--" "--what?" she snapped. "Extreme? No it isn't. Not when they mow down professors left and right here." Of course she was exaggerating, but even though the State University of Michigan at Michiganapolis wasn't quite Bosnia or even the Alamo, Juno definitely had a point. The faculty at SUM had suffered heavier than usual attrition in the past few years through murder, and there really was no way of knowing who was going to become the next dead academic. How bad was it? Well, if SUM were the Dow Jones index, brokers would be talking about a "market correction."
Burning Down the House FROM THE PUBLISHER
Nick Hoffman's State University of Michigan is a place where the Borgias and the Marx Brothers would be equally at home. Heading into the Christmas season, SUM is being torn apart by bizarre attempts to make it more diverse while an autocratic new provost pushes for a White Studies program and Nick faces not only a tenure battle but conflicting requests for support in a battle for department chair.
With his professional life a mix of seasonal chaos and departmental warfare, Nick discovers that he's not only attracted to the outrageously sexy Juno Dromgoole and disturbed by these disorienting new feelings in his life, but also the target, along with Juno, of a vicious harassment campaign that escalates into stalking, assault, and attempted murder. There's certainly no shortage of suspects, only solid clues. The decisions Nick faces may change his life forever...if he survives.
Author Biography: Lev Raphael is a prize-winning short story writer, novelist, and critic. He lives in Michigan, and is the mystery review columnist for the Detroit Free Press and the book critic for National Public Radio's The Todd Mundt Show. He also reviews for the Washington Post and Jerusalem Report. Also available from Walker & Company are two earlier Nick Hoffman novels, The Death of a Constant Lover and Little Miss Evil.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In Raphael's disappointing fourth book featuring untenured professor and amateur detective Nick Hoffman, Juno Dromgoole, an English professor at the State University of Michigan, wants to find out who's been harassing her with anonymous phone calls urging her to "Get out!" and to become chair (the "alpha bitch") of her department. So she turns to her colleague Nick for help. The Glock-owning Juno hardly seems to need Nick or anyone else; she's got more balls than 99% of her colleagues, whom she dismisses as "a bunch of whiners and weasels." This dysfunctional tribe of academics represents the possible suspects, and while several are clearly capable of a threatening phone call, none seems to have the guts or the motive for the (mildly) escalating violence. Raphael pads the story with other conflicts: Will Nick get tenure? Should he buy a gun of his own? Is he attracted to the Amazonian Juno? (Not a trivial question for a gay man in a committed relationship.) It would take a more resourceful, less ambivalent hero to rescue Juno or this thinly plotted novel. Nick is almost as annoying as his petty, inarticulate colleagues. Their heated debates are more reminiscent of playground squabbles than intellectual disputes. Satirizing the academic world is one of the author's big themes, but it's a tired premise in this inexplicably titled book. Raphael doesn't generate enough narrative momentum or suspense to hold the reader's interest as the novel grinds to its abrupt, unsatisfying ending. (Oct. 10) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Things have gone from bad to worse for Nick Hoffman (Little Miss Evil, 1999, etc.), assistant professor in that bastion of obscurity, the State University of Michigan. Not only is his tenure committee in disarray; his entire department seems on the eve of self-destruction, with relative newcomer Juno Dromgoole, professor of Canadian lit, enmeshed in a long-term catfight with acting chair Serena Fisch over the dubious distinction of running the teetering Department of English, American Studies, and Rhetoric (EAR). His own prospects of being granted the privilege of continuing his career in this den of vipers is further imperiled by his running battles with Rusty Dominguez-St. John, who takes exception to Nick's sexual orientation; with Avis Kinderhoek, the would-be head of SUM's new Whiteness Studies program, who thinks Holocaust survivors are a bunch of whiners; and with department secretary Dulcie Harrigan, who's miffed by his refusal to contribute to EAR's Diversity Tree. A stalker bent on ridding the world of Juno seems to have Nick in his sights as well, but when he gets beaten up in the washroom of EAR's headquarters, decrepit Parker Hall, the campus cops, led by belligerent Detective Valley, suspect Nick of complicity. Worse yet, his longstanding domestic partnership with Stefan Borowski, EAR's writer-in-residence, is threatened by the inexplicable sexual obsession he's developed with voluptuous Juno, who misses no opportunity to waft her leopard-skin-clad treasures beneath his tempted nose. All complication and scant resolution: Raphael's latest is really just the first installment in an overlong, paranoid conspiracy theory.
Art & Photography
Book Info
