MURDER AT THE B-SCHOOL

Under constant siege from other prestigious American universities, many of them fictitious, Harvard consolidates its claim as the capital of academic homicide in this colorless debut.

When you’re going up for tenure and your case looks dire, the next-to-last thing you want is the death of one your former students in a university-owned hot tub. The very last thing, as Prof. Wim Vermeer soon learns, is for the Dean of the Business School to appoint you special liaison to the wealthy family of mourners on the strength of your alleged closeness with the late Eric MacInnes and your current tutelage of his brother James. None of the surviving family members, it seems, is looking for intimacy, certainly not with a mere pedagogue (let alone an assistant professor). The party who is, surprisingly, is Captain Barbara Brouillard of the Boston PD, whose believably no-nonsense manner makes her the most compelling personality here. The MacInnes kin are stock characters out of “an English drawing-room farce and a French costume drama,” as Wim aptly notes, and Wim himself is nothing more than a junior faculty type doomed to success despite his most hapless efforts.

Saddest of all, wallowing among the forgettable MacInnes clan leaves business writer Cruikshank (The Greenspan Effect, not reviewed, etc.) all too little time to dish dirt on the B-School. Maybe next year, as they say in Boston.