Passport to Murder

Mary
Angela
Genre: 
Mystery
https://amazon.com/dp/B0746QGX9R?tag=intama-20

Emmeline Prather, an English professor at Copper Bluff University, is looking forward to spring break and the opportunity to travel to France with a handful of colleagues and students. She’s excited to get to know the group better, and at the chance to connect with her French ancestors. Tragedy strikes the group, however, when another professor dies mid-air from a peanut allergy and grounds them. Something just doesn’t sit right with Emmeline about Molly Jasper's  death. She becomes convinced it was more than  simply an accident — and when another member of the group seemingly commits suicide after the funeral, her suspicions are confirmed. Professor Prather is hot on the trail of a killer.

"Passport to Murder" is the second in the Professor Prather Mystery series, and is well written, with vivid descriptions and carefully crafted secrets. So well written, in fact, that the argument could be made that it was too much so. The author uses words that even a prolific reader would need to look up; however, because of the identities of the main characters (college professors and students) and the setting of the story (a university) the language works. A couple of strong complaints would be the immense foreshadowing and the almost flowery outlook Emmeline has at the beginning of the book. It seemed that the author was working extremely hard to make the readers like and feel badly for the protagonist. A definite plus is how difficult it is to figure out the killer's motive and identity.  The reader will be left with mouth agape at the twist of whodunit. Nicely done!
 
Yannie Sorensen