CAMPUS BONES

A psychic college professor held at gunpoint by a student pleading innocence in the death of his recent ex-girlfriend decides to look into the case once the would-be shooter is dead.

Fun-loving Samantha has had her fill of slumming it with the eco-interested at Lamount University. She’s on the verge of dumping her new friends when she’s dumped by longtime boyfriend Bryan McDougal. She’s not going to let that stand in her way of having a little fun and a few margaritas until…she can’t remember the rest. But her big night out becomes something much darker when her body is found in her room, making Bryan suspect No. 1. Teaching assistant Jake Bergman relays this summary quickly to his mentor, professor Eric Evans, when Bryan accosts the two of them with a gun. Bryan thinks Eric can give him answers because Eric’s known for his psychic gift, so he must know that Bryan would never hurt Samantha. Eric can’t even begin to ponder the ethics of helping before someone knocks on the door and Bryan scoots out the window—and soon falls from the top of a parking garage in an apparent suicide. Eric and Jake aren’t so sure, and Jake suspects that both Samantha’s and Bryan’s deaths may relate to Samantha’s eco-hobby and membership with the eco-activists (or eco-terrorists?) in Defenders of the Earth. Eric shares his thoughts with his recent ex, Susan Marlan, who just happens to be an FBI agent working what could be a related case. Meanwhile, Jake investigates the old-fashioned way, by infiltrating DOTE, though doing so may be riskier than he imagined.

Well-drawn and character-driven, even though the most interesting characters don’t outlive the first few chapters.