"A Rare Murder in Princeton" by Ann Waldron

A RARE MURDER IN PRINCETON by Ann Waldron is the third McLeod Dulaney mystery I have read, and after each read I can soundly declare I have come across thoroughly enjoying what I have just finished.  Each book has offered a sound mystery with believable characters and a fulfilling resolution.  With this fourth offering in the series, I do believe I have discovered the best yet. 

McLeod Dulaney is a treasure of a central character.

The story begins with McLeod coming to Princeton once again.  She is there to teach another semester of writing; and while she is there, she will be staying with her good friend George Bridges in a new house he has just purchased.  Unknown to her at the time, but learned from page one, is the house was known as the “Murder House” to those in the area.  Twenty years earlier a woman, Jill Murray, a previous owner of the house, was murdered there in a crime never solved.

McLeod learns of this from Nathaniel Ledbetter, a dinner guest of George’s her first day at the house.  Natty worked as director of Rare Books and Special Collections at the university; and as McLeod holds a special interest in the writings of Anthony Trollope, he extends an open invitation for her to visit.  She does so, and begins to meet all the players in this little drama: Philip Sheridan, one of the collection’s biggest benefactors and a true book lover beyond the content of the written word – as McLeod quickly learns; Chester Holmes, his assistant and curator of Sheridan’s collection; Molly, the department’s receptionist; Miss Swallow, a reader/researcher who made use of the collection’s archives; Randall “Buster” Keaton, the curator of the Rare Books; and even the elderly Dante Immordino, who appears at the new house one day offering the same handyman skills he employed for Jill Murray when she was the owner.

These are some of the people McLeod meets who also become of the suspects in Nick Perry’s investigation of the ensuing murder.

The fact that a murder took place amongst this group was slightly disappointing.  With the immediate inclusion of a murder from the start, I had hoped it would serve as the mystery for McLeod’s incessant curiosity.   Something a little different from the norm is always a spice of freshness to any genre.  Nevertheless, the new murder does have something in common with the old, both centering on the ‘rare books and special collections’ from which this mystery’s focal point emerges.  It is her discovery of several unique artifacts stored away in an old box of dresses (one being an ancient book) along with the collection of Philip Sheridan that stirs the pieces of murder and mystery into play.

One factor I always appreciate with any Ann Waldron mystery is it exceeds the trappings of mere mystery.  She successfully follows the formulaic pattern of what makes a mystery through the intro of characters and setting/murder/sleuth ask questions/murderer exposed/showdown with sleuth/police arrive.  Yet in addition to what mystery lovers would expect, she also interjects a measure of knowledge into the story.  How many people who engage in a casual read, such as A RARE MURDER IN PRINCETON, ever heard of the writings of Anthony Trollope or Henry Van Dyke?  When a book can successfully engage people with knowledge they, perhaps, did not know, while entertaining them with a solid mystery that will not disappoint, the task of an author has been accomplished.