Here's the story...

Many students hate freshman comp teachers. Enough to murder one?

Visiting Professor Mary Beth Goldberg and her fiance Tony Bartlett who works at Bob’s Superbike Store (“we recycle cycles”) discover bodies of a comp. instructor and a Border collie at Midfield Campus College (McCollege).

With Midfield’s Sheriff, Just-call-me-Seth, they investigate. All English Department faculty have potential (blackmail, hatred of dogs, questionable character) to murder.

Each Prof. is linked to one phrase of DeQuincey’s, “If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.”

Have fun. The author does--with a sly satire included in what at first looks like a traditional Agatha Christie type murder mystery.

Reviews:

"Eloquent Blood is a smart, playful, old-fashioned murder mystery full of modern twists."
Susan Coll, author of Rockville Pike

"Eloquent Blood is a swiftly paced narrative with a varied cast of characters that wittily exposes current academic life."
Raymond C. McCall, Professor of English and Theater Emeritus, The College of Wooster

"Forget the term 'ivory tower.' The Ohio college faculty people in Audrey Lavin's mordantly hilarious Eloquent Blood don't have their heads in the clouds at all. No, they spend their energies on down-to-earth endeavors: lying, cheating,--and killing."
David Stout, Edgar Award-winning author of Carolina Skeletons.