DEBTS OF DISHONOR

A potential Cambridge benefactor falls short.

Saint Agatha’s, one of Cambridge’s least well-endowed colleges, is hopeful that the new bursar will put things right and that old boy Sir Julius Farran, the Takeover King, will donate a bundle to them. The problem? The bursar has gone walkabout; Sir Julius has slunk out of a drying-out establishment and plunged off a cliff called Hell’s Elbow; and his son-in-law Max has been fatally stabbed. This is no way to run a business or a college, and the Farran Group and Saint Agatha’s are in trouble. So is Andrew Duncombe, an economist with ties to both Saint A’s and Sir Julius, and former beau of college nurse Imogen Quy (A Piece of Justice, 1995, etc.). Plucky Imogen uncovers many might-have-dunits, including the vengeful son of a man bamboozled by Sir Julius; a college don writing an exposé of Sir Julius; and pretty Fiona, who first dallied with Sir Julius, then with Max, then with Andrew, and now has her sights on Lord Robinswood, chairman of the Farran Board of Directors. One of Imogen’s hunches will take her to Paris, where the plot takes a major twist, then back to Cambridge, where she must wrestle with her conscience before parceling out justice.

A tad too much financial wheeling and dealing to qualify as a true British cozy, but definitely geared toward the genteel reader.