Bleeding Maize and Blue

Computer programmer Anneke Haagen and Karl Genesko, the former All-American football player who's now an Ann Arbor, Mich., police lieutenant, tackle the unsportsmanlike death of an NCAA investigator in their third outing (following Curly Smoke). University of Michigan newspaper reporter Zoe Kaplan gets the scoop of the decade right before the annual President's Weekend when she learns of an impending NCAA investigation into the school's recruiting practices. As alumni gather, the Pulitzer Prize-winning local sports columnist can't figure out how he was scooped by a college girl. When the dead body of the NCAA inspector is found, stabbed with the pole bearing the blue and gold Michigan banner, Zoe, the columnist, Anneke and Karl are with the group of influential alumni on hand. As the police, led by Karl, look for the killer, Anneke befriends Zoe, agreeing to be the young woman's sounding board now that her sports story has turned into crime news. What emerges is a covert war between college football fanatics and academic supporters, each of whom rates the value of the college experience in a different light. But would anyone in either group kill to protect the teams' national ranking or the money it generates for education? Anneke finds the answer in a laptop for an up-to-the-minute solution to a modern dilemma. (Sept.)