The Spire

July 6, 2009
This thoughtful if less than suspenseful thriller from bestseller Patterson (Eclipse
) charts the impact of the brutal murder of black coed Angela Hall at Caldwell College in Wayne, Ohio, on gifted athlete Mark Darrow, who discovered the body and later became a nationally renowned lawyer. Mark’s best friend was convicted of the crime, but many aspects of the trial troubled Mark. Lionel Farr, Caldwell’s provost and Mark’s former mentor, offers Mark the post of college president 16 years after Angela’s murder. Mark agrees to return to Caldwell, now struggling with the suspected embezzlement of $900,000 from its endowment by its current president. With Lionel’s support, Mark investigates both the embezzlement and the old murder. Patterson evokes the quiet schism between town and gown in Wayne as well as the fragile relationship between blacks and whites, while Mark’s probing hits exposed nerves with fatal results.