Academic Noir #2: Four Full Novels By ////

Four novels of crime, sex, betrayal and murder set against the backdrop of academia.

FACE OF MY ASSASSIN by Carolyn Weston and Jan Huckins

A lost literary classic, back-in-print for the first time in 60 YEARS, a powerful novel in the tradition of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

It’s 1959. Matthew Scott is a widowed, alcoholic reporter from New York who seeks personal and professional redemption when he’s sent to the Deep South to write about a town that is defying a U.S. Supreme Court decision to integrate blacks into schools. His mere presence is a catalyst that ignites long-buried racial, political, religious, and personal conflicts among the residents, both white and black, ripping the town apart. Those tensions violently explode when Scott is falsely arrested by the bigoted, tyrannical sheriff for the rape and murder of an out-spoken black schoolteacher.

This is a stunning, shockingly vivid portrait of a dark time in America’s history, a tale of intolerance, bigotry and hope that’s as relevant today as it was sixty years ago…

THE NEW FIVE by Ralph Dennis

There’s never been a sports novel like this one. The basketball action is so raw and visceral, you’ll feel like you’re on the court yourself.

A lost, previously unpublished novel from the late Ralph Dennis, author of the legendary Hardman series of crime novels. In The New Five, he takes a gritty, hard-boiled “police procedural” approach to 1980s college basketball, tracking a struggling, but ambitious team through a tumultuous season, approaching each game like a decisive battle in a bloody war.

Timothy McCarren is the tough, hard-charging new sports director at a small North Carolina university. To him, the basketball court is a battlefield, the players are his soldiers, and he is their cunning General, leading them into war…and showing no mercy. He will do whatever it takes, bend any rule, and push his players to their physical and emotional limits to make them champions.

“Exceptional characterization, strong and vigorous prose, and a glimpse into a place and time that has long since disappeared.” Mystery Scene Magazine

“Gritty writing? Tough talk? Gripping action? Yes, yes and yes.” The Daily Oklahoman

MALE VIRGIN by John B. Thompson

Some things can’t be taught in books…

College psychology professor Tom Tallant is a virgin who knows nothing about the psychological or physical aspects of sex…only what he’s read. Yet that’s what he’s hired to teach. Joan Cannon, one of his prettier students, decides it’s imperative to teach her teacher about the little things, like seduction. Then comes Josy and her sister, who take on the task of demonstrating the infinite ways of finding pleasure. And, finally, there’s Lenthe, who teaches him all of those things…but also about love.

SHADOW OF A DOUBT by Norman Daniels

Harold Griffith is a widowed, middle-aged school teacher who lives with his daughter Grace. His friend Neil Morrison, a respected banker and Grace’s boss, is accused of luring a little girl into an empty house, where he raped and murdered her. Or did he? Grace isn’t sure he’s guilty, but she’s falling for the cop on the case, and it’s her father’s testimony that could clinch Morrison’s conviction…and send him to the gas chamber.

Harrison Judd was a pseudonym for Norman Daniels (1905 – 1995). This novel was adapted into the 1978 French-Italian film Le Témoin, starring Alberto Berti and Philippe Noiret and directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky. Berti stepped in when Jean Gabin, who was originally signed to star, died shortly before production.

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