Scratched: An Algy Temple Mystery

In Partridge’s excellent third Algy Temple mystery (after 2008’s Straight Pool), the Providence, R.I., attorney, who’s in-house counsel for Carter University on College Hill, has too much on his plate. Academics opposed to Christopher Columbus are agitating to change the name of the holiday honoring him, a sure-fire recipe for conflict in the heavily Italian-American city. Providence’s reform-minded mayor has just named Temple to a commission overseeing a pool tournament. A Madoff-like scam artist’s Ponzi scheme has jeopardized the investment account of the trust that helps fund the university’s Institute for Italian Studies—whose director emeritus, Italo Palagi, has just been found dead of an accidental overdose of oxycodone. Temple, who suspects Palagi’s death and the institute’s financial troubles are related, sets out to unravel the truth. Partridge adroitly weaves together the different plot points of this witty and well-written whodunit. Agent: Paula Munier, Talcott Notch Literary Services. (Nov.)