Blunt Instrument
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jun 2, 2026
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A failed professor solves a murder on campus in this new whodunit from bestselling author Amy Bloom.
The case of the bludgeoned lecturer has all of Cromwell University reeling, even though the elderly Professor Bullfinch wasn’t particularly well-liked. His ornery nature and Old World approach to campus politics ruffled more than a few feathers over the years, and present tensions within his department mean there are more suspects than mourners in the wake of his death. And the murder weapon—a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne—does seem to indicate that the attack may have been academically motivated…
Enter Dell Chandler, the failed English professor turned self-taught private detective whom Dr. Cutty calls in to investigate the crime. She has the background to tease out the motives among the staff and just enough experience to conduct a thorough inquiry. If she solves the case before the cops do, the university could keep the whole thing quiet, avoiding sensational media about the dark side of campus life. But to do so, she’ll have to dodge her own demons from her past life as a disgraced academic.
Written with the same depth of character and insight that readers have come to expect from author Amy Bloom’s novels and memoirs, Blunt Instrument is an engaging and entertaining mystery with a clever, complex protagonist at its core.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Novelist Bloom (I'll Be Right Here) makes her mystery debut with a witty whodunit featuring failed academic Dell Chandler, who supplements her PI training with copious episodes of Law & Order. Dell is called to the Connecticut campus of Cromwell University to investigate the death of English department head Oliver Bullfinch, one of the most esteemed American literature scholars in the world. Bullfinch's body was found in his office, battered by a bronze bust of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the administration, hoping to avoid too much media attention, wants Dell to get to the bottom of the case before the police do. Dell's list of suspects lengthens as she interviews Bullfinch's colleagues and a consensus emerges: he was "a vicious, doddering old man, vain about his reputation and indifferent to those of his junior colleagues." Bloom draws on her own experience with the dog-eat-dog world of academia to depict the brusque, irascible Dell's winding journey toward the truth. Some late-breaking plot contrivances take this down a few notches, but for the most part, it's a blast. A sequel would be welcome.
