Helpful Score: 1
Killing a foul-tempered professor seems admirable - but the hero shouldn't be blamed...
Thomas F. (hardtack) -
Here is a comment on the book's back cover description. The main character is called "professor." After 33+ years on the faculty of a university, I know you don't get to be a (full) professor and not gain tenure. I need to read the book to see if the person involved was 'just' an assistant professor, then the tenure-refusal would make more sense.
It turns out while main character is called a "professor," he is probably just an "assistant professor." But the author doesn't make that distinction.
And my 33+ years of experience also leads me to believe more professors deserve to be killed. ;-)
Finally, I've read a number of Beck's novels and enjoyed them. While this one often seemed very confusing, it was still a fun read. And it ends with the main character having his feet on more solid ground, but still undetermined if he should return to an academic career.
Hey Charles, take my advice. Don't sell your soul. Stay in the car repair business. You don't have to "publish or perish," and you make more money too. Unless you become a university administrator, then you'll have trouble spending your paycheck. But you'll be universally hated, and, once you die, you'll suffer eternal damnation!
It turns out while main character is called a "professor," he is probably just an "assistant professor." But the author doesn't make that distinction.
And my 33+ years of experience also leads me to believe more professors deserve to be killed. ;-)
Finally, I've read a number of Beck's novels and enjoyed them. While this one often seemed very confusing, it was still a fun read. And it ends with the main character having his feet on more solid ground, but still undetermined if he should return to an academic career.
Hey Charles, take my advice. Don't sell your soul. Stay in the car repair business. You don't have to "publish or perish," and you make more money too. Unless you become a university administrator, then you'll have trouble spending your paycheck. But you'll be universally hated, and, once you die, you'll suffer eternal damnation!
When Professor Charles Carstairs was refused tenure at the unitversity, he was delighted to accept the gift of an auto-repair shop from his Uncle Cosmos. The unpaid bills, complaining customers and inept mechanics that were part of the package were only moderately annoying. However when a body was discovered in the trunk of a car parked on his new premises and when - worst of all possible worsts - the dead man turned out to be Dr. Bateman, the department head who had put the whammy on Charles' academic career, minor concerns like bankruptcy faded into nothingness. If the police had their way, Charles would soon receive tenure in prison - for murder.
