The Ivy Covered Viper

Sir MacKenzie Bowell College appears to be a small backwater school quiet and unimportant and nestled in an equally sleepy and unambitious town on the north shore of Lake Ontario. But when a student goes missing and is eventually found to have been murdered the mask of lethargy is torn off and a nest of vipers is found to lie underneath all aspects of Bowell College.The murder is at first mishandled by an overreaching young police officer whose haste and inexperience threaten the solving of the crime. As a result an old Detective Inspector is dragged out of retirement and into his very last case. Exploring the background of the killing proves to be far from simple and its tentacles creep into every element of the College: its feuding faculty members its rebellious students and its despised administration.As the mystery unravels what is revealed is a startling exposure of the deeply flawed state of education on campuses in North America today. What begins as a standard if complex exploration of a murder rapidly becomes entwined with the current excesses of political correctness and the threat to free and open debate. The solving of a horrible crime becomes intrinsically linked with a potential model for the future of education and free speech in colleges everywhere.