The Red Queen’s Run: A Red Solaris Mystery

Romance fans will best appreciate Morris’s mystery debut, the first of a trilogy. Meredith Solaris, dubbed Red for her hair color, becomes interim dean of Mountain West University, a journalism school in Nevada, after the dean, her friend Henry Brooks, dies in a fall down some stairs. Fortuitously for her ailing love life, the detective who investigates the suspicious death is hunky green-eyed Joe Morgan, whom she recently met at a party. Red becomes as interested in consummating a relationship with Joe as in figuring out who murdered Henry. Her status as a witness with knowledge of those on the faculty who might have wished her friend ill doesn’t stop Joe from getting involved with her or allowing her to play an active role in the case. The plot follows a predictable path as Morris telegraphs developments well in advance. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Associates Literary Agency. (Dec.)