Fresh out of graduate school and desperate to pay off her student loans, Nicole Adams joins the faculty at Higher State U, a small university with a dubious past located in the middle of the Midwest. On her second day of classes as a new assistant professor of philosophy, still flustered and disoriented, Nicole is plunged into a campus-wide mystery. Someone has ransacked the office she shares with the ill-tempered R. Reynolds Raskin, the department's senior professor, and he has since disappeared. Two weeks later, with Raskin still missing, Nicole receives a threatening phone call . . .Read one way, this is an entertaining parody of an academic mystery and a humorous take on academic life. Turning the book upside down reveals another purpose. Each chapter is constructed as an informal case study/discussion story, as is made manifest by a series of discussion questions intended for faculty development, new faculty orientation, and conversations among faculty, administrators, and academic staff. As the mystery unfolds, each chapter finds Nicole encountering challenging situations—such as, the first day of class, student incivility, teaching evaluations, peer observation, academic assessment, the scholarship of teaching and learning, faculty and student rights and responsibilities, core curricula, and tenure standards. This little book can be read and used both ways: as pure entertainment and as a series of informal case studies, spiced with humor, to help break down academic barriers and promote spirited discussions

El Littlefield runs The Butler Did It catering business in Eden's Bridge, a small university town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. During her most important catering event yet ? a fancy dinner for Dr. Max Haverhill, bachelor and history dean ? countless guests fall ill, a 200-year-old relic is stolen, and her best friend vanishes. All in the first hour. Racing to solve the mystery, El and Max discover there's more to their relationship than simply solving the case.

Professor James Moriarty has but one desire left in his shattered life: to stop the man who ruined him from harming anyone else. Then he meets Angelina Gould and his world turns upside down. At the International Exhibition, an exploding steam engine kills a man. When Moriarty tries to figure out what happened, he comes up against Sherlock Holmes, sent to investigate by Moriarty’s old enemy. Holmes collects evidence that points at Moriarty, who realizes he must either solve the crime or swing it for it himself. He soon uncovers trouble among the board members of the engine company and its unscrupulous promoter. Moriarty tries to untangle those relationships, but everywhere he turns, he meets the alluring Angelina. She’s playing some game, but what’s her goal? And whose side is she on? Between them, Holmes and Angelina push Moriarty to his limits -- and beyond. He’ll have to lose himself to save his life and win the woman he loves.

The Professor's Mystery

Eyebrows are raised as crime-scene tape drapes across the once distinguished Colonial Bloodworth House. For the mansion, nestled amidst the tranquil academia of Kenan College, may have once been the scene of a brutal murder. When archaeologist David Morgan unearths a decayed body during a dig for Colonial-era artefacts he enlists Professor Simon Shaw for a little detective work. As Kenan College's youngest full-time professor, Simon knows more about the house than anyone. As he digs deeper into this decades-old murder, Simon finds that someone still very much alive wants to put a permanent stop to his investigation.