Final Exam (Murder 101 Mysteries)

Alison Bergeron is hoping that she can get through the rest of the school year without becoming involved in another murder case (and hopefully get tenure if she can leave all the "trouble" behind). The Dean will do anything to keep Alison's nose clean. When Wayne, the Resident Director of the boys dorm, goes missing the Dean makes Alison fill the position. Until either Wayne returns or the semester ends. She knows this is going to be a very long 5 weeks and struggles to make the most of it. While her boyfriend, Detective Bobby Crawford helps her move in, an exploding toilet reveals a packet of hidden heroin. Does the packet have anything to do with Wayne and his disappearance? Since Bobby is a homicide detective, he turns over the investigation to narcotics, while at the same time promising Alison he'll do whatever he can - off the record - to help her figure out what is going on. Alison is bound and determined to find out what happened to Wayne as fast as she can so that she can get out of the dorms and back home where she belongs. While doing some undercover work, she finds that Wayne's mother has an uncanny resemblance to Sister Mary. Are they related? Does Sister Mary have something to do with Wayne's disappearance? And could she possibly be hiding him in the convent??? It appears that Wayne may have been set up with the drugs, until a very large stash of marijuana is found in the floor of his room. Now Alsion understand why all the kids were asking where he was and letting her know how "cool" he is. There is one student who misses Wayne the most, Amanda. Amanda professes to be in love with Wayne, while at the same time being engaged to someone else. Could this be the reason for Wayne's vanishing act??? Meanwhile, Alison has an unwanted house guest. Without giving away any surprising story lines ~ let's just say that Alison has a very small bit inside her that is happy she's having to stay in the dorm. How can she get this person out of her house? And more importantly how can she save the relationship before they kill each other? And will a shocking revelation be the answer to every one's prayers? This is definitely my favorite book in the series. The action moves along quickly while Alison seems to get herself into one bind after another. While she ever learn? I hope not, because that is what makes her so lovable. The characters are likable and believable, the romance sweet with enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing right up until the last 20 pages. And with an ending that will hopefully ring true.

When a dorm's resident director goes missing, English professor Alison Bergeron--who is hoping for tenure and being manipulated by this goal--gets drafted to filling his place. But when she discovers a load of drugs in the missing man's room, she wonders if there's something more complicated going on than an extended vacation. One thing she knows for certain...as long as the missing man remains simply missing, she's stuck doing his job, stuck on a dry campus with no boyfriend visitations, and stuck away from her own home, where her best friend is taking care of her newly semi-single status by going on a decorating tear. Finding the missing man isn't especially difficult--he seems to pop up all over the campus. But he's a lot faster than Alison, and he doesn't seem to mind a bit of violence if that's what it takes to get away. Meanwhile, dangerous-looking men are showing up, looking for the missing resident director (and maybe for the drugs, too). And then there is the beautiful co-ed who was having an affair with the man. Alison, along with her cop-boyfriend, try to follow every lead, sometimes with discouraging results. Author Maggie Barbieri writes with light touch that kept me smiling as I read. Alison occasionally does silly things, but she's well-motivated and it's not hard to sympathize with her impulsive decisions. This is the second book I've read in the Murder 101 series and Barbieri shows strong growth from her first effort.

Maggie Barbieri has the fourth in her romance-humor-mystery series, featuring college professor Alison Bergeron. Our heroine Alison ends up having to spend a few weeks living on campus in a dorm as a resident director (as school administrators get back at her for her previous adventures, which entangled the college). This leads to all sorts of amusing stuff, as the professor gets caught up in drug dealings, student love triangles, and other neat on and off campus action. And of course, there's her romance with Crawford, the police detective. As I said in the review of Maggie's first book, if you can imagine Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, and Zena the Warrior Princess, rolled into one, that's Alison. The mythical college, St. Thomas in the Bronx, is suspiciously similar to Mt. St. Vincent's College, in the Bronx. Lots of fun! A quick, entertaining, and breezy read.

I really enjoyed this and all the other books by Maggie Barbieri. Ally is a hoot, and the supporting characters are also very entertaining. This series is a winner, and I eagerly await the next installment.

North of New York City lies St. Thomas College where Professor Alison Bergeron teaches. Although she is eligible for tenure, she is denied the opportunity due in part to her penchant for solving mysteries especially murders that reflect badly on the college. When Resident Director of the Sienna Dorm Wayne Brookwell vanishes, the Dean selects her to replace him over her objections. Being a quick study, she knows she has no choice unless she wants am even more miserable existence. Preparing for Extracurricular Activity of the unwanted student kind, Alison leaves her beloved home to reside in purgatory; understanding the nuking of her privacy especially with her lover Detective Bobby Crawford. Her new abode is more like a monk's isolation cell as even the toilet does not function nor by the looks of it has in eons. Crawford visits her in her new jail cell, but they soon find a major stash of heroin in the blocked toilet and a huge stash of marihuana. Alison seeks Wayne and there have been a zillion sightings, but not by her. Someone watching for Wayne marks Alison to silence her permanently. This charming piquant romantic amateur sleuth is fun to read due to the strong cast; ACADEMIC and otherwise. Alison crashes the said image of a professor with her antics while the support cast, especially once the heroine is placed in hell, add eccentricity and hyperbole to the Final Exam whodunit. Maggie Barbieri provides another enjoyable Mystery 101 tale as class is in session with Professor Bergeron proctoring. Harriet Klausner