Antique print dealer and community college professor Maggie Summer has been thinking about adoption .. is it for her? So when she has the opportunity to work with a dormitory just for single parents on her campus, she jumps at the idea of looking at life as a single parent. But when one of the young parents is poisoned, Maggie finds herself questioning her co-workers on cmapus .. and her own emotions.
Maggie Summer' is excited about her new assignment as faculty advisor to the students in a new dormitory for single parents and their children that the wealthy Whitcomb family have donated to Somerset County Community College. She finds it more exciting than she anticipates when one of the students in the house is poisoned at a reception given by the Whitcombs, who are also some of Maggie's best print customers.
Between preparing lectures on American Civilization (using prints from her collection to illustrate cultural points) and preparing for an antique show, Maggie is torn between her own needs and those of her students -- and of their children. And, of course, she needs to find the poisoner ...
In the process, she makes some important discoveries about herself.
Excerpt
As Maggie watched, Sarah joined Tiffany at one of the bookcases in the elegant personal library. Sarah looked unsteady. Maybe her earlier drinks had been stronger than Bloody Mary mix. Tiffany guided Sarah to a chair.
It wouldn't be good for the Whitcombs to see one of "their" girls drunk. Maggie crossed the room quickly.
"No. It's not June. Don't let Simon know." Sarah looked at her strangely. "I smell roses." Her body listed toward the side of the chair. "I think I'm going to puke."
"Tiffany, take her arm." Together they helped Sarah stand.
"My head hurts, too. Bad."
Maggie quickly smelled Sarah's breath. No alcohol. But she did smell as though she'd been smoking. Funny; she'd never seen Sarah smoke. "Let's get her out of here." Maggie headed Sarah and Tiffany toward the door.
"Shouldn't we say good-bye to the Whitcombs?" Tiffany said. "I'll go tell them." She dropped Sarah's arm and headed for Oliver.
Maggie just managed to keep Sarah upright. She was becoming weaker, and a puddle of drool was dripping onto the front of her soft gray turtleneck. Please, don't let her throw up on the Aubusson carpet, Maggie thought, just before Sarah's legs gave way and she collapsed onto the floor.
Professional Reviews
Crime - Shadows on the Ivy (New York Times)
Maggie Summers does a nice New Jersey-based business in vintage prints and lithographs in a series by Lea Wait. Although she's usually tearing up and down the Eastern Seaboard covering New England antiques fairs, Maggie pretty much stays put in Shadows on the Ivy, running her shop, teacheing her classes at Smerset College, and trying to figure out who's poisoning her students. But that doesn't mean Maggie doesn't get around. Her course on "Myths in American Culture" goes back in time to the days when woodcuts and hand engravings were ana important source for news and her lectures on the racist imagery of 19th century prints are hot stuff. Wait, who runs an antique print business of her own, not only loves her field, she also makes it fresh and relevant.
Shadows on the Ivy (Publishers Weekly)
In Agatha nominee Wait's third enjoyable antique print mystery professor, antique print dealer and part-time sleuth Maggie Summer gets embroiled in an on-campus murder. Somerset County College, thanks to wealthy benfactors Dorothy and Oliver Whitcomb, is experimenting with a new dormitory designed to house single parents and their children. During a party at the Whitcombs' house one of the students is poisoned and as the students' advisor. Maggie takes great interest in the case. When another student is murdered, Maggie digs even harder to get at the truth. Who could possibly have a motive to kil these struggling students? Are the Whitcombs as benevolent as they seem, or do they each have ulterior motives that could prove sinister? Maggie is hard put to juggle her teaching duties (during her lectures she uses antique prints to illustrate American history) with her detecting. While it has little to do with the plot, Wait's knowledge of antique prints and American culture will entertain and educate readers.
Murder & Mayhem Bookclub
Maggie Summer, a community college professor in Somerset County, New jersey, considers herself a lucky person for being able to combine the three things she loves the most: her teaching, her antique print busienss, and the new man in her life. She is considering adding a child into the mix. but she isn't sure if she's ready, although she does hear her biological clock ticking. But when Oliver and Dorothy Whitcomb, a wealthy coupler on the college board amd two of her best customers, set up a special dormitory for single parents and their kids, Maggie agrees to become the faculty advisor for the young parents. It gives her plenty of time to observe think about what being a single parent would involve. But then, at a party at the Whitcombs' home, one of the young mothers is poisoned and lapses into a coma, and suddenly the whole program is at risk, along with the lives of everyone connected with it. Maggie must figure out who the killer is and what he or she wants before more people, maybe even herself, are murdered. And to add to the urgency, the president of the school, fearuful of negative publicity, is threatening to close down the dorm, leaving the young parents with nowhere to go. Maggie turns to her beloved antique prints to find the answers she seeks.
Wait manages to skillfully blend memorable characters, both good and bad, with fascinating plot lines and add in little bits of lore about antique prints that make this an informative as well as entertaining book. This is a nice cozy that will be a welcome read on a lazy summer day.
Jerry Lowenstein, an octogenarian and a nice guy, has written a fantastic mystery/ suspense novel that takes place just after WW2 on and near Bikini Atoll. He actually witnessed an atomic bomb test. Can you imagine that?
