The Darkling Halls of Ivy

by Lawrence Block Narrated by Peter Berkrot, Teri Barrington

Overview

In recent years, colleges and universities have become known for their "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces"¿but as the eighteen authors who penned stories for this powerful new anthology can tell you, there's plenty of danger still lurking behind the stolid stonework, leather-bound volumes, and thickets of ivy.



Award-winning editor Lawrence Block has assembled a Who's Who of literary luminaries and turned them loose on the world of academia, where petty rivalries and grand betrayals inflame relations between professors and students, deans, and donors. From Ian Rankin to Joe Lansdale, Seanan McGuire to David Morrell, each author reveals the dark truths and buried secrets that make institutions of higher learning such a hotbed of controversy. You'll encounter plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and brutal competition¿not to mention secret societies, cover-ups of murder, and one near-future course of study that makes The Handmaid's Tale look like Mother Goose.



So: collect your supplies, plan your schedule, and prepare to pull an all-nighter, because The Darkling Halls of Ivy is required reading.



Contains mature themes.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 03/30/2020

Set in and around colleges and universities, the 17 new stories and one reprint in this top-notch anthology explore the forbidding side of academia. As Block (the Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries) notes in his droll introduction, each of the varied, well-told tales is “as individual as fingerprints.” Among the standouts are David Morrell’s devious “Requiem for a Homecoming,” in which two alumni cast suspicion on each other while debating a 20-year-old murder; Ian Rankin’s riveting “The Reasoners,” concerning the cover-up of a murder at a secret society in an ancient British university; and Reed Farrel Coleman’s chilling “An Even Three,” about a psychopath at a liberal arts college. Elsewhere, themes veer from rivalry, rape, and survival of the fittest, to plagiarism, academic ghostwriting, and unsavory alternative employment beyond the ivy-covered walls. Creepy oddities include Owen King’s tale of heroism, “That Golden Way,” A.J. Hartley’s supernatural “Rounded with a Sleep,” and Jane Hamilton’s superlative “Writing Maeve Dubinsky,” about the appropriation of another person’s work. Crime fiction fans won’t want to miss this exemplary compilation. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International. (May)

From the Publisher

Set in and around colleges and universities, the 17 new stories and one reprint in this top-notch anthology explore the forbidding side of academia. As Block (the Bernie Rhodenbarr mysteries) notes in his droll introduction, each of the varied, well-told tales is “as individual as fingerprints.” Among the standouts are David Morrell’s devious “Requiem for a Homecoming,” in which two alumni cast suspicion on each other while debating a 20-year-old murder; Ian Rankin’s riveting “The Reasoners,” concerning the cover-up of a murder at a secret society in an ancient British university; and Reed Farrel Coleman’s chilling “An Even Three,” about a psychopath at a liberal arts college. Elsewhere, themes veer from rivalry, rape, and survival of the fittest, to plagiarism, academic ghostwriting, and unsavory alternative employment beyond the ivy-covered walls. Creepy oddities include Owen King’s tale of heroism, “That Golden Way,” A.J. Hartley’s supernatural “Rounded with a Sleep,” and Jane Hamilton’s superlative “Writing Maeve Dubinsky,” about the appropriation of another person’s work. Crime fiction fans won’t want to miss this exemplary compilation.

-Publishers Weekly's starred review

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176370188
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/25/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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