DEATH OF A CLOUD WALKER

An intriguing return for Russell (Nice Enough to Murder, 1971, etc.), whose several years' absence hasn't diminished her skills at plotting or characterization. Now, a Harvard psychology professor, Toby Frame, who lost a leg on an Appalachian trail when a mountain man left him to die, has joined a project group headed up by the wealthy, charismatic Dr. Ault Allyn at a small, venerable, neighboring university. When a tenant decamps, Ault rents Toby his apartment, and in it he finds clips about his mountain accident! Then the deaths start, as well as eerie phone calls, and Toby feels he's being haunted by that long-ago mountain man. Meanwhile, Pat Elliot, a graduate student he's attracted to, admits she's been sexually harassed by Ault; others confess he's appropriated their scholarships. Yes? Or no? The bizarre denouement once again finds Toby battling his mountain-man nemesis on a hazardous Appalachian trail.... Strong interweaving of past and present sins, and a splendid analysis of academic types. A small treasure marred only slightly by its hyperbolic conclusion.