Final Exam

Final Exam by Maggie Barbieri

Minotaur Books, 2009;

324 pages

Genre: Mystery; Contemporary

4th in Series

Summary: Dr. Alison Bergeron is on shaky ground after previously being involved in three other mysterious affairs on campus so when the dean says that she "can" take the place of a missing residence director, she cannot argue. Alas that means leaving her recently separated best friend in her house and also precludes private time with her hot cop boyfriend. Naturally she goes looking for that residence director, uncovering some secrets along the way.

Why I Read: It was featured on my library's shelves, tempting me for two weeks. Originally I resisted because I knew it wasn't the first book but eventually I caved.

Thoughts: I've been craving a book that focuses more on the mystery rather than "atmosphere" (I'm talking to you Ms. Alexander and Ms. Raybourn) and this fit the bill as well as being a lot of fun. The main character is Dr. Alison Bergeron, a professor at a Catholic school in New York. She has a great sense of humor and I'd think we'd get along (except for me being a student and more of a cat person while she has an adorable-sounding dog). But she seems very levelheaded and determined. I also really liked her boyfriend (although she feels too mature to use that term) Crawford. He just sounds really hot and generally very supportive of her (although she breaks the law at one point, which he obviously can't support).

One character I did not like was her best friend Max. Maybe Max is a lot of fun in earlier books but here she is incredibly annoying and whiny. I did not quite understand why they were friends. The other characters I mostly liked. As to the mystery, I was disappointed that there was not a murder (There's blood on the cover-someone ought to be dead!) and I did not manage to put everything together but I liked following it.

Overall: 4 out 5. Light and breezy. Luckily one does not have to read this series in order but I'm definitely planning to get the rest through the library when I have time.

Cover: Love it! Actually while I was reading I managed to get a paper cut on my left thumb and a deeper cut on my right pointer finger, meaning that my blood is left on a page. I didn't realize what had happened!