Lessons for Survivors

November 10, 2014
Cochrane’s ninth Cambridge Fellows romantic mystery featuring sleuths and lovers Orlando Coppersmith and Jonathan “Jonty” Stewart (after All Lessons Learned) catches up with them in 1919, on the eve of Coppersmith’s investiture as Professor of Applied Mathematics at St. Bride’s College, Cambridge, England. The emotional wounds from WWI are still raw; preferring to focus on work, Stewart and Coppersmith are eager to take on a case for Rev. Ian Bresnan, whose Uncle Peter died under suspicious circumstances. As the investigation progresses, the feisty duo find the field of suspects is littered with liars and blind alleys. It’s tempting to liken Stewart and Coppersmith to a famous fictional Victorian crime-fighting duo—though they bristle at such comparisons—but their romance is not the slightest bit subtextual, and it puts them at the mercy of a blackmailer. Cochrane weaves a generous amount of wry British wit into the interactions of two likable characters whose deep emotional connection will touch readers’ hearts as the twisty mystery challenges their brains.

January 1, 2015
WWI veterans Jonty Steward and Orlando Coppersmith are teachers at Cambridge, amateur detectives, and partners in every aspect of their lives . . . neither sure whether the detection or the intimacy was the most dangerous. Orlando is now the Forster Professor of Applied Mathematics; the original Forster professor had come to a sticky end, literally, falling into a vat of flour and egg when on a visit to a biscuit factory to observe particle and liquid flow. Despite the professorship, Orlando is restless; the war left him with two medals, a terrible scar, and nightmares. When a client appears who's concerned that his old uncle's been murdered by his much younger wife, Rosalind, the pace picks up in Cochrane's latest Cambridge Fellows Mystery. Jonty and Orlando discover Rosalind's shady past, her husband's empty coffin, plagiarism, and a larcenous colleague.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)