The Semester of Our Discontent (Lila Maclean Mystery #1) by Cynthia Kuhn

The Semester of Our Discontent by Cynthia Kuhn
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Lila Maclean has just started her job as an English professor at Stonedale University. She’s just starting to make some friends with her colleagues and learn her way around but after a confrontation with a colleague she later walks in to find he’s been murdered. More attacks on professors follow the first but when Lila’s cousin is arrested in the case Lila vows to find out more about what is going on and clear her name.

The Semester of Our Discontent is one of those cozy mysteries that has the main character sticking to who they are and doing their investigating with their own skills and knowledge. One thing I never enjoy is when the characters become some sort of super sleuth when they are supposed to be everyday people caught up in a crime, thankfully this book kept Lila in the world she would be comfortable with as a professor and I certainly appreciated that.

However, I will say some of the debates and discussions among the group of university professors could be a bit dull here and there. Some parts were interesting but after a few discussions about the male literary authors versus females and what should or could be taught the story got a bit slow paced for my taste.

Now, my biggest complaint overall with the book may be considered a slight spoiler but it involves the ending and the killer. The big killer reveal at the end isn’t something a reader could really pick out and guess from the story and the overall explanation really was rather weak for a killing spree. It’s also really not realistic to have the killer basically giving a haha it’s me speech when those involved hadn’t a clue.

Overall, some good aspects to the story and writing but in the end I wasn’t extremely overjoyed either. In the end decided to go with 2.5 stars for The Semester of Our Discontent.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.