Murder by the Numbers

Book excerpt: Pomp, circumstance, and murder mark the graduation ceremony at Marcus Rome State University. Famed philanthropist and commencement speaker, Douglas Norwood, lies dead. There is no apparent motive. A cryptic message to a local television station provides many questions but few answers. Sergeant Tom Warren and the campus police are faced with the grim task of untangling the mess. University President Norman Mulholland wants a solution fast, and appoints mathematics professor Jim Albright to serve as liaison between him and the police. In an unconventional move, Warren and Albright enlist a group of amateur sleuths composed of Albright's sexy psychologist wife, Donna; eccentric mathematical genius Elmo Sherwin and his wife, Michelle; and Mulholland himself to work with Warren. With the exception of the president, this is the same group that pinpointed another campus murderer three years earlier (see Math Is Murder). The team soon learns the crime is more complicated than it first appeared, and watches with growing anxiety as the university's situation deteriorates. Will they be able to solve this mystery in time to prevent more carnage? The clues in this whodunit are everywhere. It's up to the investigative team and the reader to find them. The problem is recognizing them.