THE CROESUS CLUB

About the Book

What's this? Crap and corruption at the University of Toronto? Ah, but that was a generation ago. Surely we can bask in the belief that nothing like the events reported here might recur today, or in the future, or at other universities? Whether or not they did happen in Toronto, as they did, so long ago?

But this story is not just a recounting of academic perfidy, of gentlemanly agreements trashed, of student welfare thrown to the winds by delusional professors. It follows, as well, the attempts of Kelly Collins, Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, as he tries to surface from the devastating loss of his young wife and unborn child some years before. These attempts lead him to the purchase of a house, its rental to a variety of students and friends, and the establishment of an investment club-The Croesus Club. All of these initiatives take on lives of their own when he goes on sabbatical to the antipodes. He is forced, by inexplicable charges of his own moral turpitude, to make an early return. A mind-boggling romp through what the house has become explains Kelly's predicament, then culminates in a startling resolution of all.

About the Author

Colin Hines is currently a Toronto writer of fiction. A professor at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and at the University of Toronto (where this story is based) in the 1970s, he later joined the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (where his sequel Murder at Arecibo evolves).