MURDER UNDER THE ELMS

About the Book

MIichael Evens, a representative for a national organization that oversees possible infractions of academic freedom, is called upon to investigate a case at his own alma mater. In short order he finds himself faced with ugly scandal, egregious cover-up and a triple murder scene. In the process, however, Michael also finds friendship and love.

About the Author

The author spent most of her academic career writing about the French sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, emphasizing especially the works of women writers. In 1991 she published her groundbreaking study, "Rape and Writing in the 'Heptameron' of Marguerite de Navarre" to rave reviews. Professor Cholakian did not live long enough to see in print the radically new biography of this same writer, prepared in collaboration with her husband, Rouben C. Cholakian, and published in 2006 by the Columbia University Press, three years after her death. It is difficult to know how she might have responded to seeing the publication of this one-time clever excursion into the colorful and amusing land of academe, which she knew very well. The manuscript lay undiscovered for many years on the shelf of a closet, and might well have never see the light of day had her husband not read it to friends, all of whom urged that it be shared with readers of the mystery genre.