Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Review and Giveaway: The Quotient of Murder

The Quotient of Murder (Sophie Knowles Mystery - Book 4) by Ada Madison

Publication Date: 11/05/2013
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pages: 304
ISBN-10: 0425262707
ISBN-13: 978-0425262702

(Received for an honest review from Berkley Prime Crime)

Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, IndieBound

Ada Madison (aka. Camille Minichino) on the WEB: Website, Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads

Books in the series:

The Square Root of Murder (2011), The Probability of Murder (2012), A Function of Murder (2012), The Quotient of Murder (2013)

Coverart: Click the image for a larger, clearer view of the covers in this series.




Excerpt from The Quotient of Murder, courtesy of the author's website.

Synopsis:

Dr. Sophie Knowles loves using puzzles to make math fun for students. But when winter seizes Henley College, she must thaw out a cold case to track down a killer—her most difficult puzzle yet . . . 

Winter Intersession is in full swing, and campus is buzzing over the concert celebrating the bell tower’s reopening. The building has been shuttered for twenty-five years, and Sophie’s shocked to learn why—a student leapt from it to her death. But she’s even more troubled by the secrecy surrounding the case. After Sophie performs some quick calculations, she’s left with a nagging question: Was it really suicide?

When one of Sophie’s favorite students, a performer in the concert, is brutally beaten and left in a coma, Sophie’s mind kicks into overdrive. The horrific incidents seem too coincidental to be unrelated, but can Sophie put together the pieces from a twenty-five-year-old murder before any other students get hurt?


Thoughts:

Who better to be a great amateur sleuth than a math professor? The Quotient of Murder is the fourth book in the Sophie Knowles Mystery series by Ada Madison. Madison's main character Sophie Knowles is a Math professor at a small New England college and she dabbles a bit in puzzles, brain teasers and murder. Her powers of deduction will challenge readers who enjoy deductive reasoning, probabilities and even a bit of science. But you don't have to be a Math geek to be entertained by this great mystery. A great addition to a very intelligent series!

I'll be the first to admit that I am not good at math. I struggled with it during my whole school career, basically because I thought it was boring. Had Sophie Knowles been my professor things might have been different. One of the things that I like so much about this character is that Knowles makes Math fun. She gives her students puzzles and brain teasers that show how the mechanics of Math works but still keeps it interesting. I liked that whole idea along with the puzzles Ada Madison puts in the back of each of her books in this series. Great food for thought!

The mystery is this one was quite original. Apparently, Henley college's bell tower has been boarded up for over 20 years. Now that the tower is to be reopened there is a lot of speculation as to why it was closed in the first place. When one of Sophie's students who is supposed to be one of the new bell ringers is beaten and left for dead, Sophie starts to listen a little closer to the gossip about a long ago suicide. I thought Madison crafted a very thoughtful and well plotted mystery here. Sophie is trying to correlate the data on the suicide from the past and figures out that is can't have been a suicide, it was murder and it is related to this latest incident as well. 

Madison does a fantastic job of keeping readers off balance with this one. There is a lot of information and evidence, but it takes someone with a mind like Sophie's to figure it all out. I love the way her mind works in this series. You can see those gears turning as she uses Math to put two and two together. This series will appeal to readers who love Math, as well as, those of us who are more challenged...LOL. 

One of the things I like about this series is the relationships that Madison has created for Sophie, not just with her students but with others as well. I like Sophie's relationship with her boyfriend, Bruce. Bruce is a medivac pilot and that adds not only a romantic element to the stories at times, but also creates tension with is vocation. I also like how she interacts with Vigil. Sometimes amateur sleuths have issues with the police and sometimes they get on rather well. I like the way these interact with each other and essentially help each other solve the crime.

This is a great series that you have to try if you haven't read anything by this author. It's intelligent and challenging and most of all, it's a series that is a lot of fun trying to figure out. I didn't get this one til the very end. I had no clue and that's rare. I generally have an inkling of who is at fault in most cases, but not this one. It was a total surprise.

The Quotient of Murder is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples from my book bag!



About the Author:


Ada Madison is the pen name of Camille Minichino. Camille is a retired physicist and math teacher and the author of eight other mysteries as well as short stories and articles. She’s also Margaret Grace, the author of the Miniature Mysteries.


Giveaway Details:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of The Quotient of Murder by Ada Madison.

~ You must be an email subscriber to participate.
~ US Addresses only.
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST, December 11th.

1. Please leave a comment describing your favorite kind of puzzles.
2. Please fill out the FORM.

19 comments:

traveler said...

I enjoy puzzles that involve words since I read so much. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

Linda Kish said...

I like all kinds of puzzles but the one I do daily is sudoku.

Angela - Bookaunt said...

I like to do word searches, fill-ins and easy crosswords. I am not good at any other types of puzzles.

Rita Wray said...

I love crossword puzzles.

Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

Carol N Wong said...

I love medium crozzwords, easy cryptograms,hard word finds and jigsaw puzzles, mostly 1,000 pieces or more.

Barbara T. said...

Life is a puzzle.

Elizabeth Schroedle said...

I love crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, hidden object puzzles and "How many differences can you find?" picture puzzles.

Sue Farrell said...

I enjoy jigsaw puzzles.

Unknown said...

Crosswords, word searches and jigsaws !
kathambre@yahoo.com

Carol M said...

I like to do jigsaw puzzles. I leave them on a card table and do a little bit at a time.

lag123 said...

I like to do jigsaw puzzles occasionally.

lag110 at mchsi dot com

skkorman said...

I love crossword puzzles and large jigsaw puzzles!

skkorman AT bellsouth DOT net

Unknown said...

I do like word searches and I love mysteries; but traditional puzzles have never really interested me. My mind simply doesn't seem to find a practical use for organizing pieces of a broken picture back together again. I loved the review. This is the kind of math teacher I needed, as well.

bn100 said...

jigsaw puzzles

Brooke Showalter said...

I just love word searches and fill-in puzzles. Logic books are a lot of fun, too!

Anonymous said...

Love doing crossword puzzles.

Anita Yancey said...

My favorite kind of puzzles is crossword puzzles. Thanks for having the giveaway.

ayancey1974(at)gmail(dot)com

TAMMY CUEVAS said...

I like word puzzles.
tcuevas@iccable.com

Michelle F. said...

Easy crossword puzzles or fill-ins.