With Distinction: A Chess Hanrahan Novel

Cline’s uneven fourth Chess Hanrahan novel, written before the first published in the series, First Prize (1988), charts the PI’s previous career as the police chief of East Auberley, Mass. Suspecting that the death of philosophy professor Craig Mackie at Sloane University isn’t the suicide it initially appears to be, Chess launches an investigation into Craig’s colleagues. His inquiries lead him to corruption and intellectual fraud among Sloane’s younger generation of professors as well as to the related murder of disgraced academic Joel Breen. Meanwhile, Chess finds a newfound respect for philosophy through his encounter with the work done by Craig, a WWII hero, and the professor’s young disciple, David Perry. Taking his cue from Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy, Cline focuses on an indictment of academe, unfortunately to the exclusion of tight plotting or believable characterizations. Only fans of Chess’s other adventures will likely find this outing satisfying. (May)