The Darkling Halls of Ivy

Starred review from March 30, 2020
Set in and around colleges and universities, the 17 new stories and one reprint in this top-notch anthology explore the forbidding side of academia. As Block (the Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries) notes in his droll introduction, each of the varied, well-told tales is “as individual as fingerprints.” Among the standouts are David Morrell’s devious “Requiem for a Homecoming,” in which two alumni cast suspicion on each other while debating a 20-year-old murder; Ian Rankin’s riveting “The Reasoners,” concerning the cover-up of a murder at a secret society in an ancient British university; and Reed Farrel Coleman’s chilling “An Even Three,” about a psychopath at a liberal arts college. Elsewhere, themes veer from rivalry, rape, and survival of the fittest, to plagiarism, academic ghostwriting, and unsavory alternative employment beyond the ivy-covered walls. Creepy oddities include Owen King’s tale of heroism, “That Golden Way,” A.J. Hartley’s supernatural “Rounded with a Sleep,” and Jane Hamilton’s superlative “Writing Maeve Dubinsky,” about the appropriation of another person’s work. Crime fiction fans won’t want to miss this exemplary compilation. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.