The Dean Is Dead

The Dean Is Dead is an amusing satire about a midwestern college described by the author as "a small liberal arts college, forgotten by much of the world, certainly by the state department of highways, and by most of those few alumni who had done better in the world than their talents or education suggested would happen." The satire is deftly handled through characterization and dialogue and any reader who has attended a small college will recognize many of the faculty members, some remembered particularly for their goofiness and affectations. The town also plays a role in the book since there is an uneasy truce between the sleepy village and the college campus. The college president is into playing politics and the town's police department consists of five and a half people. Needless to say, they do not have much experience in investigating serious crime. So when the Dean is found dead, a series of events takes off and the tangled webs of relationships on this campus figure into the laughs as well as the murder plot. If you've ever been to a small college you will recognize the cast of characters whose eccentricities provide some of the more humorous bits of description in the novel. Urban has spent his life in the academic world and his descriptions ring true. For those who like satire, this is a great read.